This is what I've been telling my son ahead of the difficult times that I knew were ahead of us just a few weeks ago.
We accepted an offer on our house back in October and although we found just the perfect house to buy only a few weeks later, there was always going to be a bit of a lag between the two. We didn't want to lose our buyers so we decided to move out at the beginning of February, and then the completion of the purchase of our new house would only be a few weeks away.
In the meantime, we're effectively homeless. No worries, my husband said. His elderly parents will be thrilled to accommodate us in their spare room for as long as we need. It will be a month at most, and we have a caravan that we can park on their driveway, we can have a few nights in it, it will be like being on holiday, our toddler son will be buzzing. We'll get an adventure, they'll get quality time with the grandkids. It's a win win.
It made sense and I was happy with it. The only worry I had was something that inevitably comes with any house move - my son would have to move to a different preschool. The new house is two hours away and in another county, there's no way he can stay. And he absolutely loves his preschool and has been thriving in it. I had to break the news to him gently, but there was still lot of crying. It was heartbreaking. I absolutely hated that we were about to turn his little life upside down.
On those nights when I was putting him to bed and he expressed any kind of worry about leaving his friends behind, I would say: "Everything is going to be fine. Sure, there won't be any preschool for a while, but it will be just like a big holiday. At the end of the day, all that matters is that you, daddy, mummy and baby, we all will be together. And together, we can handle anything."
On the last day of our official ownership of the house, as I was alternating between cleaning the house and crying and reminiscing about all the good times we've had in each room, the phonecall came. Mother in law tested positive for covid and needs to self isolate. We can come but we're strictly to stay in the caravan. No coming into the house, we can refill our water tank from the outside tap, we have a kitchen and a bathroom and all the food we need in the caravan. For 10 days while she isolates and another 4 days on top while father in law finishes his isolation.
There was no plan B and so we went. That's ok, I thought. It will be fine. As long as we're together.
On the first day we got there, baby caught a cold and cried for two nights straight, keeping everyone awake. Toddler was tired and grumpy all day long, eventually he caught the same cold and spend the next few nights crying and keeping everyone up. The caravan is tiny when you have to spend all day in it and entertain two pissed off children. He gets bored of sticker books within 10 minutes. It's cold outside so we go for short walks but the kids are cold and bored. We're in rural Lincolnshire and there's nothing to do. I'm too exhausted to drive them to the town to the playground because I know they won't last for very long anyway, it's the coldest February we've had for years. Toddler misses his friends and I know things are about to get worse because husband needs to get back to work next week, but he works from "home" which at the moment is the caravan, so I know we'll get in his way constantly.
We're together and it fucking sucks. I want to go back to that woman I was just a few short weeks ago, in her comfortable heated house with all those rooms available, and tell her to shut up. But it's a big adventure and we're all together, except we're cold, bored, sick and miserable. I know there's an end to this. The solicitors are working, as slowly as they always do, on our completion date. I've heard they're aiming to complete in about 14 days, when we can finally get our key and move in. Providing we haven't all killed each other by then.
We accepted an offer on our house back in October and although we found just the perfect house to buy only a few weeks later, there was always going to be a bit of a lag between the two. We didn't want to lose our buyers so we decided to move out at the beginning of February, and then the completion of the purchase of our new house would only be a few weeks away.
In the meantime, we're effectively homeless. No worries, my husband said. His elderly parents will be thrilled to accommodate us in their spare room for as long as we need. It will be a month at most, and we have a caravan that we can park on their driveway, we can have a few nights in it, it will be like being on holiday, our toddler son will be buzzing. We'll get an adventure, they'll get quality time with the grandkids. It's a win win.
It made sense and I was happy with it. The only worry I had was something that inevitably comes with any house move - my son would have to move to a different preschool. The new house is two hours away and in another county, there's no way he can stay. And he absolutely loves his preschool and has been thriving in it. I had to break the news to him gently, but there was still lot of crying. It was heartbreaking. I absolutely hated that we were about to turn his little life upside down.
On those nights when I was putting him to bed and he expressed any kind of worry about leaving his friends behind, I would say: "Everything is going to be fine. Sure, there won't be any preschool for a while, but it will be just like a big holiday. At the end of the day, all that matters is that you, daddy, mummy and baby, we all will be together. And together, we can handle anything."
On the last day of our official ownership of the house, as I was alternating between cleaning the house and crying and reminiscing about all the good times we've had in each room, the phonecall came. Mother in law tested positive for covid and needs to self isolate. We can come but we're strictly to stay in the caravan. No coming into the house, we can refill our water tank from the outside tap, we have a kitchen and a bathroom and all the food we need in the caravan. For 10 days while she isolates and another 4 days on top while father in law finishes his isolation.
There was no plan B and so we went. That's ok, I thought. It will be fine. As long as we're together.
On the first day we got there, baby caught a cold and cried for two nights straight, keeping everyone awake. Toddler was tired and grumpy all day long, eventually he caught the same cold and spend the next few nights crying and keeping everyone up. The caravan is tiny when you have to spend all day in it and entertain two pissed off children. He gets bored of sticker books within 10 minutes. It's cold outside so we go for short walks but the kids are cold and bored. We're in rural Lincolnshire and there's nothing to do. I'm too exhausted to drive them to the town to the playground because I know they won't last for very long anyway, it's the coldest February we've had for years. Toddler misses his friends and I know things are about to get worse because husband needs to get back to work next week, but he works from "home" which at the moment is the caravan, so I know we'll get in his way constantly.
We're together and it fucking sucks. I want to go back to that woman I was just a few short weeks ago, in her comfortable heated house with all those rooms available, and tell her to shut up. But it's a big adventure and we're all together, except we're cold, bored, sick and miserable. I know there's an end to this. The solicitors are working, as slowly as they always do, on our completion date. I've heard they're aiming to complete in about 14 days, when we can finally get our key and move in. Providing we haven't all killed each other by then.