I “share custody” with my neighbour, and it’s fantastic

So the kids were out of the house on Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to about 7 p.m. I have no idea what they were doing, but I do know where they were.

They are seven and five, so this independence might sound a little surprising. But it was a truly great Saturday.

I drove them nowhere, and prepared exactly zero meals (after showing the youngest how to toast her own bagel, which she has been delighted in doing every morning since). They ate lunch and dinner across the street, and even watched a movie there before bedtime.

Then, on Sunday, I had my two kids plus my “third child” all day. His own parents didn’t see him from 11 a.m. to just after 6 p.m. I gave them all lunch and dinner, and had the kids walk him home in time for everyone’s Sunday night bath/shower.

I think his mom painted a room while she had the house to herself, while I helped my sister sew her Halloween costume during my day “off.” It was an excellent weekend for both of us.

What’s with the absentee kids — and the extra kid? It’s a new thing I’ve been trying out. It’s called “When your kids are obsessed with another kid and you start to forget whose kid is whose.”

Continue reading in my weekly parenting column, The Mom Scene … 

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