What do you make of those crack-of-dawn phone calls? Far too early for my liking.
Lately, my wife’s sister-in-law has taken to ringing us at 5 in the morning. My wife’s brother’s phone isn’t on silent at that hour eitherhis sister keeps calling him too. We barely had our eyes open. Their audacity was absolutely astonishing.
When I picked up the phone, this is what I heard:
“Why are you still asleep? We need to leave before eleven for some important business. Keep an eye on the children, they’re already outside your gate.”
Before we could get a word in, the line went dead.
My wife and I just stared at each other in disbelief. Whose children at this hour, and why on earth were they waiting out front?
My wife got dressed and headed outside. The dogs were barking their heads off, so there definitely had to be someone there.
And sure enough, three of our nieces and nephews were lined up by the gate. I was honestly stunned.
We brought the children inside and started ringing their parents to find out what on earth was going on. The answer we got was:
“Don’t you care about your nieces and nephews at all? You never help us out financially or buy presents. The least you can do is spend some time with them. We have important errands, so nows your chance to redeem yourselves in your children’s eyes.”
My wife and I were honestly floored. The youngest is not even a year old and they hadnt even left any nappies or baby food.
Thankfully, there’s a 24-hour Tesco in our town, so my wife popped out to pick up all the essentials for the little ones. I mean, we simply had to feed them something.
We had them for what felt like an eternity. The children were restless, wouldnt nap, and were teary. It was clear none of this was their faultbeing woken up at such an ungodly hour would make anyone upset.
Their parents didnt come to collect them until three in the afternoon, and that only happened because my wife and I kept phoning them. Looking after someone elses children really is a tremendous responsibility.
On top of everything, they complained that wed bought the wrong food and nappies. Naturally, they took all the shopping home with them anyway.
Now, were left wondering how on earth to protect ourselves from this sort of thing happening again. Were genuinely worried well wake up to find our nieces and nephews at the door again at 5am. Even now, I feel uneasy remembering the whole ordeal.
If I learned anything, its that its alright to say no and set boundarieseven with family. No one should take advantage of your kindness, no matter how early in the morning it is.
