The last week of April, my son made a startling announcement. He and his precious wife and their three children we're going to the beach for Mother's Day weekend. They were renting an Airbnb, and they wanted us to come along. Free of charge. It was my Mother's Day gift.
I was tickled to death and so excited that he was doing something so wonderful for me. I usually got a card. But this was exciting. A trip for me? How wonderful!
Well actually, it would be a trip for his wife and me, but it would be fun to spend time with my grandbabies.
I should have known there was a catch to this somewhere.
A few days before we left, my son asked if we would be available to babysit while on our trip.
And there it was... the catch.
Of course I said yes because we enjoyed being with our grandbabies, and I was looking forward to some time at the beach with my family.
So we went to North Myrtle Beach and met our son there. It was biker week and motorcycles were practically everywhere. The weather was on the chilly side and overcast. Rain had been predicted, and I was terribly worried because I had booked us all on a dolphin sightseeing cruise.
Unfortunately, I had booked through a third party company and discovered, when the trip was over and we had not seen a single dolphin, that this was actually a harbor cruise. I was more than a little aggravated but my family told me they had enjoyed the trip anyway and luckily, it didn't rain.
On Saturday night my son and his wife were going to a concert and asked if we would babysit. So I pulled out games, toys, and art supplies I brought to keep them entertained for hours.
Exhausted, I put pajamas on the children and dumped them in bed at 10:00 p.m. Then, I climbed in bed ready to sack out from the long day. Unfortunately, the children heard my husband making racket downstairs, and my oldest granddaughter who is nine, got out of bed to see what he was doing. Well that meant the other two got up also, and the three-year-old and the four-year-old followed her down the stairs. My husband, thinking it would be fun, pretended to be a monster and chase them back up the stairs. Well, of course, that got them all excited and wound up. I wanted to choke him.
Finally, I got them all put down to sleep for the night. The next day we went to play miniature golf, and I sincerely recommend that you never do that with children under the age of nine.
It seemed as though children were everywhere slapping the ball with their little golf clubs. Golf balls were flying through the air, and my four-year-old grandson thought it would be fun to throw his ball into the waterfall. It was a $5 golf ball with a Batman logo on it that my son had just purchased. He was upset that we could not retrieve it and threw himself down pouting. The three-year-old was climbing over everything he could find, and the nine-year-old was rapidly moving through all the courses.
I had enough.
I finally suggested that each adult take a child and play a hole. That worked well for a while until my daughter-in-law said she was sad because she wanted us all to play together as a family. And that's when chaos reigned once again. To make matters worse, I tripped and fell which scared my son half to death. I was fine, but decided to sit out and rest for the last few holes.
Later that evening, my husband and I took the children to get ice cream near the beach. Of course, they were covered in ice cream when they finished so we all went down to the ocean to get cleaned off and then play in the surf and sand. I'm pretty sure there was a massive fish kill after my grandkids washed up in the ocean.
The next day it was time to come home. My husband and I packed up our car and had just started down the road when a massive thunderstorm struck. The rain was so thick that visibility was down to zero and the wind was shaking the car.
I had had enough.
I looked at my husband.
"I am exhausted, I cannot help you drive, and I cannot go another step. I have to sleep!"
He looked back at me with red, tired eyes.
"I don't care how much it costs, but I have to sleep NOW! Pull into the next hotel you see," I demanded.
My poor husband was just as tired because he didn't say another word; he did just as I said.
We didn't even unpack the car. We grabbed the dog, walked into the hotel room, climbed in bed, and went to sleep for 2 hours. Later, we got up, went to supper, came back, and went back to bed. The next day we came home.
We always wanted grandchildren, we just hadn't counted on not having any energy when we finally had them.
The older we get, the longer it takes to recover.
