What do you think about those early morning phone calls? The ones that come ridiculously early?
Lately, my husbands sister-in-law has started ringing us at five in the morning. Not only that, but his sister herself has been calling his phone at that hour as well. Wed barely opened our eyes! The cheek of it was absolutely astonishing.
When I finally answered, this is what I heard:
Why are you still in bed? We need to leave before eleven on important business. Watch the children, would you. Theyre waiting by your front gate.
Before I could even reply, the call was ended.
My husband and I just sat there, staring at each other wide-eyed. Whose children at this hour, and why are they at our front gate?
He threw on some clothes and popped outside. The dogs were barking like mad, meaning someone was definitely about.
Sure enough, three of our nieces and nephews were lined up at the gate. I was utterly stunned.
We brought the children inside and quickly started ringing their parents to figure out what was going on. The response we got was:
Dont you care for your own nieces and nephews? You never help out with money or buy them presents. At least spend some time with them then. We have to run some important errands now. Heres your chance to redeem yourselves.
My husband and I were left speechless. The youngest is still under a year old and hadnt even been sent with nappies or baby food.
Luckily, theres a 24-hour Tesco down the road. So my husband dashed over to buy everything wed need for the kids. After all, we had to feed them something.
The day dragged on with difficulty. The children were misbehaving, overtired, and wouldnt sleep – lots of tears and tantrums. I understood it wasnt their fault, being woken up so ridiculously early.
Their parents didnt come to pick them up until three in the afternoon. That was only because we kept ringing them. Looking after someone elses children is a huge responsibility.
To top it off, they complained wed bought the wrong food and nappies! Yet, they still took all the shopping home with them.
Now were at a loss as to how to prevent this from happening again. I dread waking up one morning to find our nieces and nephews at the gate again at five oclock. Im still a bit shaken after the whole experience.
