Leaving home

Leaving home

I am leaving home for a few days. I have the privilege of going to work in a kitchen at a 5-star luxury resort for a few days.

Now leaving home for 3 days shouldn’t be a problem when I have 2 teenage children and 2 adult children, my husband and a domestic worker, but it is.

Here are the problems with leaving home, even if it is only for a few days.

My adult children work, my son leaves at 6 in the morning and often comes home late at night. As a rule, if it isn’t meat he won’t cook it, so even though he can cook he is often too tired after his day to do much of anything.

My older daughter also has a full day job, she can at least make simple meals that don’t require a recipe. She is a creative person and recipes are just not her forte.

Meals can often be hit and miss. More hits than misses, thankfully.

My two younger daughters are old enough to cook but my middle daughter is severely ADHD and is far too easily distracted to be allowed near the gas stove unsupervised to do anything more than boil the kettle.

Even then I am often grateful for the whistle of the kettle when it boils, to remind her (and her father- he is quite possibly A.D.D ) that they have something on the stove.

My husband works a very demanding day and it would be unfair to expect him to cook after a full day’s work.

That leaves my domestic worker, who would happily help with the cooking. There are two problems with this. The first is that her repertoire consists of eggs and pasta and toasted sandwiches, all of which she does really well and with love to feed her ‘babies’. The second issue is that she leaves at 5 and most of my household only gets home after 6.

This means that food needs to be reheated and reheating will often dry out the food or overcook it. It also gives the ants invading my house a place to eat.

We cannot even drop a crumb without there being a mass collection of ants around it.

The next issue which is easily solved but a little costly is the school run for my younger girls. I have to pay someone to do the school lifts.

Lastly the health issue. My two younger girls are on medication that they need to take consistently, twice a day.

Putting the medication into pill sorters is not the problem, it’s getting them to remember to take the medication in the rush before school and in the evenings at bedtime.

To solve these problems I planned, I have cooked and frozen 3 dinners for when I am away, toasted sandwiches and pasta for lunch and reminders on their phones to take the medication.

I will also be phoning in their reminders, and I have hidden a morning dose in their school bags, just in case.

Homework for my middle daughter is also an issue, with her ADHD and her being a typical teenager, with access to TV, Smartphones and Netflix, homework is often forgotten and nagging is introduced (by me).

My younger daughter is more responsible with her homework but still suffers from being a teenager and Social Media often more interesting than Life Science. This usually requires a little nudging on my part to get her back to homework.

So while leaving home is planned for, I will still worry that everyone remembers to eat, shower, take meds, do homework etc.

Having routines in place, calendars up, meal plan and schedules visible to the family should go along way to making sure I have peace of mind when I leave for a few days. http://kasheringyourlife.co.za/good-mornings-and-good-nights/

How do you manage your home life, do you have schedules in place for smooth running?