Losing heart

Round 13: Winter 2019


Nyah Marlowe is 33, Thomas is 32, Skye is 7, Jett and Kyra are 5 and Lina is 3.
(Tom is 26, Charlie is 25 and Stephen is 18.)

Narrated by Thomas Marlowe

It can be quite challenging to run a household with four kids. Especially mornings can be quite chaotic but we've come up with a working routine. I usually wake up the kids and help them get dressed while Nyah makes breakfast. Then we all sit down to eat. The kids get to the school bus and I go to work.

Nyah usually starts her work day later than me so she gets one extra hour with Lina. She says she's going to miss these moments when Lina starts school next year. I'm just glad we won't have any kids in diapers anymore! We haven't ruled out having another kid in the future but right now it seems like a really distant option for both of us.

Lina spends the day with the nanny. We've never had any problems with our nanny but I've heard that some families have really struggled to get their nannies to follow the rules they've set for the their children.

The older kids usually play with Lina when they get home from school. We've told the nanny that it's ok for the kids to watch some cartoons for a short time after school but they usually prefer playing together.

I start preparing the dinner when I get home from work. I'm in family law now so I get home a bit earlier than Nyah. She has to do so much paper work after classes that she usually gets home at around 5 pm.

The kids eat dinner, sometimes alone, sometimes we join them. Then they do their homework and we see if they need any help.

We try to get the kids to bed by 8:30 pm but sometimes they won't fall asleep until we've read about a thousand bedtime stories. The house seems so quiet after all the kids are sleeping.

That's when we have some time for ourselves. Sometimes we watch the tv but most nights we cuddle and talk about our days. It's nice to spend some time together and unwind before the whole circus starts again in the morning.

We don't usually let the kids bring home friends from school on weekdays because it wouldn't be fair for the nanny to have to babysit extra kids. She has enough work with our fantastic four.

So we often have some of our kids' friends over on Saturdays. On Sundays we usually visit my parents or the in-laws, or invite relatives to our house.

We don't get out much and almost never together. The kids spend enough time with the nanny during the week and we don't want to bother the grandparents all the time. Last weekend it was my turn to have a boys' night out with Charlie and Tom. Stephen comes home from Brixton almost every weekend - on mom's request - so I invited him to tag along too.

I think I've passed the partying phase so we went to the movies instead. Tom and Stephen were running a bit late so me and Charlie sat in the lobby and tried to decide what we wanted to see. It wasn't a very difficult choice since they only have two screens and the smaller one was showing some chick flick.

The tickets are quite affordable. I think it would be fun to take the kids to see some animated movie someday.

Of course I also had to get some snacks. A movie is nothing without some popcorn!

The movie was pretty good actually. And I'm pretty impressed by the theater. The screen was huge and the audio system was fabulous.

After the movie we went to grab a quick bite at Tom's Diner. Tom is always joking that he should get his meal for free since the diner is named after him. So far he hasn't had any luck!

Tom had to leave because he had to go to work early in the morning but Charlie and Stephen and I stayed and played some video games.

Charlie tried to convince that Stephen should throw a huge party in his dorm and invite everyone. I don't think Stephen was very excited about the idea. He sounds pretty serious about his studies.

We had a really great time. It was nice to get out of the house and hang out with my dudes.

Notes:

• Title from "Losing heart" by Brandi Carlile.
• Thomas rolled the night out with 3 closest friends ros. I chose movies because I wanted to show off my new movie theater. It was renovated from the Twilight Zone nightclub. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out and plan to do a proper tour soon.