Not so long ago before we moved back to Thailand, I was seriously considering packing up everything and moving into a motor-home. 7 kids and all! Absurd you say. Most likely, but it was tempting, since I found I spent more time in the family vehicle than we did at home, so it seemed.
I would not so much as get my foot in the door after dropping the kids off to school, than I would need to run and pay bills, do the grocery shopping, come home and unpack the goods, stash the cold items in the freezer, when it was time to pick the kids up from school again. (On not so busy days, I might have been able to throw in a couple of hours of housework). Then home in time for one of the kids to change for hockey. I would stay in the car, as it took just as much time to pile all the kiddies out of the car and back in again before needing to take my daughter to her hour-long hockey practice and games. There was no use in going home, it was 15 minute drive there and 15 minutes back home, not to mention the time it takes to get the kids out of the car. I was fortunate if I had but a little more than 15 minutes respite before having to repeat the whole procedure to pick her up again. Then there was volleyball, soccer, youth meetings, sleepovers, even early morning bus excursions…”Don’t mind me, I’ll just stay in the car.”
On some days, I would manage to get home with just enough time to cook dinner (20 minute dinners), turn off the gas, then head out the door for pickup. Yet on others, when the schedule was tight…. Remember the kids had “a life” and there are 7 of them, well 4 that had extra-curricular activities. My “life”, was taxi-driver/cum everything decent under the sun! (Now, we did occasionally arrange lifts/rides with friends etc, but other parents also had their own schedules to keep to). Other days, it was more practical to grab dinner at the hockey centre or sports-ground canteen if they had one.
When you are on the roads that much, yes, like I said, we did have a house and home, but we barely got as much as to sleep in it, - there comes the question of meals. The only available food on the road it seemed was fast-food outlets. Food in the supermarkets seemed only catered for cooking. There are very little healthy foods that are not processed with heaps of additives, pre-packaged and ready to eat. Fruit and raw vegetables you say….well remember my five year old and two year old don’t as much as take 2-3 bites out of an apple or a carrot. They love eating them but never finish them – short of bring a chopping board and paring knife into the car with me, that is not a practical outcome – which brings me back to my original temptation of in fact, bringing the whole kitchen and the kitchen sink, oh lets throw in the bed, bathroom, and t.v. as well, for effect, into the car! Not only that, to get food from the supermarket you need to pile all the kids in and out of the car because it just isn’t safe to leave your kids in the car, sometimes this is just for 1-2 items, such as milk and bread. When you have 7 kids, this is no small feat, car-seats and all, especially if the 2 little ones are taking a nap.
Once, whilst at the mall doing my usual grocery-shopping, (since grocery-shopping took most of the day, I would treat myself and the little kids to lunch at the mall.) I was determined to set healthy eating habits for the kids, I was not going to take them to the quick and easy child-enticing fast-food outlets, but to a coffee shop where they could order soup and whole-meal sandwiches instead of the notorious hot chips/French fries and fatty chicken nuggets.
I enter one coffee shop and it was full so I waited, finally a table was free and I seated the children and myself promptly at the table, disregarding the fact there was no highchair. I waited and waited, the children getting increasingly impatient, finally the waitress came to take our order – but just then I had to make a hasty withdrawl as the little one had lost patience and started making loud protests, resulting in several customers frowning their disapproval in my direction.
We headed for another coffee shop, the waiter didn’t come at all, yet another coffee shop, the prices were twice as much. The next stop, when we just made ourselves comfortable, the kids wanted to go to the toilets, up we got again and sure enough upon our return, we had lost our table and there was no other.
By this time, the kids were desperately hungry, me, I was longing to just sit down with a cuppa, franticly combing the whole mall for another coffee shop, there flashing “welcome” was the fast-food outlets and the donut shops. Battle-weary and tired, I succumbed.
No wonder the voculabury of today’s 2 year old consists of:
The name of their favourite fast food outlet.
Hot chips/French fries
Coke
Ice-cream
Hamburger
Chicken Nuggets
Copyright 2006. Rebecca Laklem.
