Yep thats right, my dear ole sis, lovingly known as Martha Stewart and 2 of her 3 kidlets are about to land on my doorstep sometime today for yet another one of those lovely two week stays. She hasn’t been here since March so I guess she must miss me.
SAVE ME!!!
HELP, I’VE FALLEN AND I CAN’T GET UP!!!
Geesh, no sooner do you get rid of one of us before another one pops in. You shouldn’t be such a wonderful hostess…
I’ve heard turkey sandwichs are wonderful as natural sleeping aids.
Turkey has Triptofane(?) which acts as a mild sedative and mayonnaise is loaded with fat which helps rob the body of some oxygen while being processed (which has the effect of making you feel sleepy). Feed them this with a nice big glass of milk every meal and they just might sleep the whole time they’re their.
Two weeks is a long time! Have you considered suggesting a shorter stay (maybe a long weekend? A single week?)? I realize it’s hard with family, but perhaps you can have a sit-down chat with your sister, and explain to her that as her children get older (as do YOU), it’s getting tougher and tougher to be a hostess for such long stretches at a time. “I enjoy your visits, but I’m a wreck from being tired after every one of these two-week visits, and my doctor says I should take it easy” or something? Blame it on yourself being tired, not on the kids (or your sister) being hard to be with.
Otherwise maybe you can ask her to keep the two-week visits but trim them down to a once-a-year visit instead?
Is your sister a stay-at-home mom? Since it’s summer time, the children are out of school so she might think she has three months of lollygagging… but if YOU work outside the home, you don’t get any sort of break yourself when they visit! Maybe your sister’s using these visits as a means for HER to get a vacation from being a full-time mom? Could that be one of the reasons you get wiped out?
It’s tough to be a hostess for two whole weeks, especially with young children in a normally quiet house. You might want to set some limits in your own household, as far as how long/often they can stay.
In my home if you are there for more than three days you are part of the household and you better pull you share of the chores. There is no need to be a hostess for 2 weeks, if they are going to be ther that long tell them that they need to help out, clean a little bit, maybe cook a couple of meals (if you trust them). But don’t let them walk all over you for 2 weeks. They shouldn’t mind that much and it will make their visit more pleasnt for you. That is unless you really can’t stand the people. Then something comes up at work and you have to go on a buisness trip for 2 weeks.
I do work outside the home but I am off for the summer because I work in a school. My sis does these last minutes trip every so often and usually just catches me off guard. I just received a call from her daughter saying they wouldnt be here until tomorrow now. It’s an 18 hour drive from up in the Northwest Territories and apparently they got away late.
Baglady, I have tried talking to her on several occasions. Unfortunately our family is very small, just myself and a brother here and my two sisters, so I do try to accommodate them when they come because sometimes it does give me a bit of a chance to visit and have family around.
My main beef is that they come and they are rarely here, thus making me a hotel who serves meals, if they show up. When they were here in March, we didn’t even go out once together. Usually we at least go out to dinner so that I’m not always running cooking meals.
My sis is a power shopper and she knows that I won’t shop with her because I don’t think its right to drag kids through malls all day every day, plus I don’t have the patience being as I’m not a shopper.
Etgaw, she does help out around the house somewhat. When she comes and I am working, she does make sure my kitchen is clean before I come home.
I am organized in the way my house runs simply because I have to be when I’m working. I make sure that my son and I have decent meals every night, that there is plenty of play time and that he gets his rest. When my family appears, its total disruption, her kids are picky eaters, they would prefer going to dairy queen every night. They stay up late because usually they are on holidays which means that my son doesnt really want to go to bed, or when he does, the noise wakes him up.
I know I sound bitchy here, but I guess I am kind of tired of it. I love my sis and her family dearly but it just seems that its not me she is coming to see, its more that she is looking for a bed to sleep in.
Sue here some easy instruction.
I will hide you in the closet, nobody will find you in there ! I know, I’ve been looking for a pair of jeans in that thing since right after Noah’s flood !