Holiday Kaos

I suspect loom bands and the release of the Lego Movie on dvd has been many a parent and guardian’s saving grace these wet holidays.

If you don’t know what loom bands are yet – where have you been? Most parents, grand parents and teachers will be well-familiar with the tiny, simple multi-coloured rubber bands which somehow have the ability to keep even pre-schoolers occupied for hours.

Really, I mean who needs a babysitter when you’ve got loom bands? What’s more, they’re as cheap as chips.

Despite how it sounds, I’m not on some sort of commission for advertising them but I’m just wondering why no one brought them out sooner?

It’s surprising how even the boys get stuck right into the jewellery-making business and Master Five today was adorned with five loom bands up each arm plus a necklace.

After making a trip up to the Happy Save shop first thing each morning to re-stock their supplies, and then a subsequent dvd and supermarket stop, they were all set up for the day so I could work from home. It actually worked and, apart from stopping to fix snacks and meals, and admire their creations, I remained mostly uninterrupted. 

Likewise the Lego Movie craze hasn’t yet died down and kids are still getting round singing the catchy theme song “Everything is awesome” at the tops of their lungs. Some bright spark at the local dvd store also decided to print out Lego Movie colouring competitions for everyone who hired the movie which kept them occupied for nearly a whole day as well.

The first week of the holidays went relatively smoothly as we were away half the week and the kids were at their grandparent’s for most of the rest. It was over the weekend, when the above-mentioned shops were shut and I was ankle-deep in mess that I began to panic as to how I would occupy them for the second week while I worked.

The dining table had been converted into a hut, which, once dismantled revealed everything under the sun that had been dragged from all rooms of the house (to make it look like a real home of course), the lounge was strewn with cut up pieces of paper and pens and the kitchen was littered in the remains of breakfast, lunch and dinner. It was at this point I decided to change my motto to: “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” and embrace the chaos.

So with the combination of this new attitude, the loom bands and dvds, I managed to achieve some work. However, for a cleanliness freak like me, living in a sloth-hole was no easy feat. By the end of the third day I spat the dummy and went on a cleaning spree. One can only take so much of squished raisons and all manner of other food particles -along with the multiple loom bands - underfoot, mud the length of the house and I won’t mention what had been walked all over the toilet floor.

So I went from being cruisy, “embrace it” mum, which the kids liked, back to the jump-down-their-poor-throats for dropping crumbs mum.

At the same time as I was undertaking my frantic clean-a-thon, I was dealing with a nit outbreak, sick child and blocked sink so work took a back seat after that. Still, I am grateful for the time those tiny bands provided, plus I am now fashionably all decked out in colourful rubber jewellery.