Wednesday, October 10, 2007

commercials? not so interesting after all

Either that or I need to find a new ad agency, or get a better life.

Here's some good news regarding Iris. Mom has agreed to let her come over in the afternoons on most days*, despite having banned her permanently from our home a couple of weeks ago.

Mom has also agreed to let us hire Iris as a mother's helper next week. Stupid Daddy is going to be away for work from Monday morning until Saturday night (yes, that's Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday--not done yet!--Friday, and Saturday I'll be attempting to hold down the fort while maintaining what little is left of my sanity), so I could definitely use some help.

What she'll be doing--a couple of hours every afternoon--isn't much different from what she does anyway. Just having her here to play with my kids frees me up to do exciting things like unload the dishwasher, take a shower, and put away laundry. And being genetically programmed to be maternal, she often asks to be involved in Lilah's care. She has fed her dinner and carried her up to the bath and helped to get her dressed. Lilah loves her, as do the boys. She's generally just fun to have around. Now she'll get paid for that. I just have to make sure the money goes to her, and she's not forced to hand it over to her mother.

(Of course, the arrangements were made during an excruciating conversation that took forever because mom kept going off on tangents, the sole purpose of which was to shame her daughter in front of me.)

The other thing that has made me feel better is learning that there are many others in the neighborhood who know that all is not well in that household. I spoke this evening with the dad of Pixie and Ava, and he clearly had a beat on the craziness, though he knew fewer specifics because he lives around the corner and not 20 feet away. He also told me that he has had conversations with other neighbors about Iris, and they too are well aware of what's been going on.

So Iris has a lot of people looking out for her, and she is as safe as she can be given that she's living with a lunatic.

*At least theoretically; Iris was supposed to come over this afternoon but was forbidden at the last minute for reasons mom didn't share with me.

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