Today of course we were supposed to return to the hospital to see james. He called us at lunchtime, sounding very ill, saying he was going home as he had a chest infection. From what cleo said (she spoke to him, I didn't) he sounded awful. We have provisionally arranged to go tomorrow but we will have to wait and see if james is any better tomorrow.
Today cleo remarked (and not for the first time) how tired she still gets. When we are not out or doing things she always tries to get a couple of hours sleep in the afternoon. When she does, this recharges her batteries enabling her to stay awake well into the evening. However, today, hannah woke her not long after she had gone to sleep, and as a result by this evening cleo was tired and emotional.
This is a difficult situation to resolve: cleo has to get her rest, and yet her instinct to be mother to her kids will often override that. Hannah of course at 11 years old needs to be with her mum, and so it's difficult to explain that she should let her mother sleep when she really wants to spend some time with her. A definite conflict of interest the answer to which I have to say I don't know.
As we said last week parenting goes on and in all we do the kids come first, though I do wish I could make Hannah understand. It's important of course that we do that, if we can, without hurting her feelings too much, because that would be counter-productive. In time I am sure that Hannah will see the need for her mum to rest much more than she ever did before, but until that time we must balance one against the other as best we can.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment