When it rains, it pours

Aaargh! It figures that I'm in the process of tidying up one area of my life when another area explodes. Isn't that Murphy's law?

So Thing One and Thing Two's childcare provider just told us last night that she didn't want to watch the girls anymore once my surgery is over and done with. It seems she can't deal with their antics, constant rambunctiousness and overall disobedient attitude any longer. :::sigh:::

On the one hand, I can't blame her. My children can be very headstrong and seem to have a propensity for doing what they want, no matter how much guidance you try to give them to go in the opposite direction. They need and crave attention, and when they don't get it, or how they want it, they do things that get them negative attention - i.e. punishment.

On the other hand, if she would have actually paid attention to them, they probably wouldn't act out as much as they do. They have to be sent off on different paths, so that the temptation to torment the other isn't present. But if they are given focused and specific tasks and are appropriately paid attention to in those tasks, then they are golden angels! In other words, get off the couch, stop having them watch Oprah and Dr. Phil with you, and actually, um, I don't know, EARN the money I pay you to watch my kids while I'm at work!

Don't get me wrong. Our childcare provider is a loving person who really cares for my girls. They wouldn't have been with her as long as they have been if she wasn't. I think the problem lies in that she has only one child of her own and has never really had to deal with sibling rivalry as a parent. It's a tough job when you're dealing with two girls that are like oil and water with each other.

I know that I have contributed to the problem they present because I have a large tendancy to tune them out because I just can't deal with the constant sniping at each other. I have been too exhausted from having two jobs and being this obese for far too long, and unfortunately that kind of parenting just doesn't fly. And, to be fair to me, The Husband has been an absent parent for a long time as well - hiding out in the garage and leaving all of the evening stuff in my hands. But we have realized this problem and are working on it together. We're going to have to change some of the routines we have fallen into, and while it may take some time, and we'll have to give up some personal space, we need to do it.

In the short term, losing our child care isn't a totally bad thing. The girls are going to be with my mom during the first week after my surgery, so that at least is taken care of. And then I'll be off of work at least another three weeks after that, so that puts us into the middle of August before I have to have somebody or a center lined up to take care of them.

The problem is, and always has been, is that we need somebody that is capable of taking them to school and picking them up because there is no bus service to private schools. Especially not a school as small as the one they go to. I have to be to work at 7 a.m. and school doesn't start until 8:20 for them. Maybe I'll be able to re-arrange my work so that I can drop the girls off at 8 when the teachers arrive and then find somebody for the afternoons. That might work the best in the end, but it will make for long days for me. There's absolutely no way The Husband can drop the kids off, because he has to be at work by 6 a.m. - there's just no getting around that at all. At least he can pick them up at a normal time, though.

Is it bad that I just want to push the fast-forward button on Thing One so that she can be 16 and able to drive to and from school? No? I can't do that? Well, damn. And a whole lot of other four-letter explitives.

We'll make it through this, and it was probably time for a change anyway insofar as the girls are concerned. I know The Husband has been wanting a change for a while. Maybe this is the nudge we needed to get us out of a very deep rut. Only time will tell, right?