Rescue Plans

I work toward calm predictability. My household is happier for it. However, I fell far short of it yesterday and today. Monday night, before the twins' bedtime, I took the three kids for a walk to the park. Though the heat index had hit 105 degrees that day, I thought the activity would be good. They had a blast, and kept walking, and walking, and walking. Suddenly, we were on a good 1-1.5 mile walk from the house. Without a stroller. I realized this would go south at some point, and it did. I called in an SOS to Kyle to bring a stroller or car, but he ended up being unreachable. So I had sweating, tired, thirsty, crying twins with only one parent and a long walk ahead of us. I picked up Molly (the crying one), held Lily by the hand and dragged her along, and Claire trailed behind whining about how thirsty she was. I was drenched and my arms were shaking from holding a baby for so long, but we trudged along, with no rescue plan after all. Finally, a neighbor spotted us, took pity on us, and carried Molly home while I carried Lily home. She told me a story about the time she was stranded in the summer when her three girls were young kids. She knew.

Clearly it was my mistake for misjudging the twins' walking stamina, but it never feels good when there's no safety net, no rescue plan to fall back on.

And then tonight I get an informative text from the nanny that she can't work on Monday, so I asked if she would trade Monday for Tuesday, and she reminds me that she's off to Europe for three weeks starting on Tuesday, don't I remember?

And I should have remembered. But she told me more than two months ago, and I committed "late July/early August" to memory (not late June/early July), and she hasn't reminded me since her initial email from two months ago, so I blindsided myself (with her help) on this one. I went into panic mode - how would we handle three weeks of no nanny starting on Monday?

And then last year's summer nanny rescued me. I sent her a panicked email and she called me within 15 minutes. She knows a 16-year-old who is willing, and I'm game. It's better than doing WFH five days per week - I don't think the boss would be that flexible. I love, love my old nanny and she is planning to visit us in July. She hasn't seen the girls in nearly a year so what a surprise she'll have!

Tomorrow I'll talk to the teenager about the sitting job and hopefully nail that down. And with a 110-degree heat index in the forecast, I won't be taking an evening walk with the kids tomorrow, stroller or no stroller.

Thank you, summer nanny, for the rescue - something in short supply in my life.