scone on a mission

ahhh.... where do I start!


We went camping last weekend (not the weekend just gone - the one before) with my sister, her husband and 2 kids, and 2 of my sisters friends... One (we'll call her L had 2 kids, the other (and we'll call her S) 1.
When we were invited to go camping by my sister it was just my sisters family, and the friend with the 2 kids.  When we were setting up the campsite, we found out the other mother and child were coming too. S had just left her husband. Apparently he'd been doing bad things (which I wont go into, and you can decide what he was doing) and she left him.
That's fine... this means I have 5 adults to practice on to prepare for my uni exam on the Monday. I should be starting to destress after my exam. Instead, I have a headache and it's worsening.
In total, there are 6 kids. 2 two-year-olds, 2 three-year-olds and 2 four-year-olds. Jensen is one of the three-year-olds and the other kids all know each other from mothers group and what-not. So the 5 kids are all playing together, but Jensen plays on his own (for the most part), coz that's what he does. One 2yo is absolutely covered in dirt. L just leaves her to play. What else is there to do, she's just going to get dirty again anyway!  While this is true, it looks terrible. My sister, L and S just leave their kids to do whatever, or see if my sisters husband knows where they are. They kept making fun of "daddy daycare" coz they just left him to look after all the kids. Finally, it's dinner time, and the kids are eating. While the adults are having dinner, the kids are allowed to play. Now. The driveway into the camp ground runs right past our campsite, and where is the most sand? In the driveway. Where are the kids playing? In the sand. It's dark. Crazy. Finally the parents give the kids torches and they run around - about a metre from me, might I add - screaming and yelling. Everyone's aware I have a headache, but do nothing to move their kids away or quieten them down. I mention that Jensen has a new routine where he goes to bed at 730.  We all decide that's a good time to put them to bed. An hour later, Jensen doesn't go to sleep, but seems ok in his tent. My sister's 2yo is asleep. L's 4yo is asleep. L's 2yo is up with a fever, but is dozing quietly on her mummy's lap. The other 3yo and my sister's 4yo, however, wont go to sleep, so they let them stay up. This seems to fuel the kids on, making noise and being silly near the fire, which is right next to our tent. About 45 mins later, I get sick of the kids being up, and the headache that is now a migraine is just too much, so I head to bed. Jensen is still awake, and now giggling at the 2 kids playing outside. Something must have happened outside, coz Andrew came to bed not much later than I did, and pretty much the others did the same.
We all took a day trip into town and while they were supposed to be following us, somehow the others got lost. We had a nice day on our own anyway :) (even though I did almost pass out at lunch time). Dinner time rolled around  and  I mentioned that Jensen will be going to bed at 730 again tonight. L said her kids  were staying up coz they just didn't want to go to bed last night. Both L and S have a kid starting with a K sound. I have no idea which kid belongs to which mother, so I just picked a name. It was the wrong kid's name I picked. I said when the two kids last night  weren't going to sleep, it just made J stay away and laugh at them. If they could just keep it down tonight. Well.  The mother who's kid it wasn't ( I know I know, it's confusing) got all up in arms coz her kids were in bed asleep, kept carrying on her kids were in bed. Yep. Fine. Whatever. I just picked the wrong kids name. I apologised and said it was just the wrong name I'd said. Both L and S said well, we're camping, so they don't have to go to bed. Well. No. You're right. We are camping, and no they don't have to go to bed. But some freaking consideration for the other people at the campsite and their kids would be extremely helpful and nice of you. Everyone had finished their dinner and had wandered off to the showers to wash the filth off their kids (coz again, they'd been playing in the sand on the driveway). I mentioned to Andrew that I was pissed off at what L had said, and that Jensen would be going to bed anway. He agreed, and he wasn't happy about the way they "looked after" their kids (basically, just let them run wild). He reckons that coz we disciplined Jensen while we were camping (and I don't mean disciplined in a harsh way, just told him off  really), they looked to us to do the same with their kids.  Anyway, they came back from the showers, and we headed off for ours. We came back (at 745) and all the kids were in bed alseep!! A win for us! HaHAHAHAHAHAHA tell me your kids wont go to sleep coz you're camping! Whether or not my sister had a word to them, I don't know. S ended up falling asleep alongside her daughter, so it was just Andrew, myself, my sister, her husband and L up. The manager of the park came round and sat with us, and the rude personal questions that L was asking him was just incredible!
In the morning (we were woken at 530 by L's kids who were squealing and carrying on... Least we had the decency to keep Jensen quiet the morning before when he woke at 545 for about 45 mins) we packed up our tent and all our stuff before breakfast, so we could just sit around and do whatever afterwards. We went down to the bbq area to have breakfast on our own, and it was so nice! You could hear the other kids screaming and carrying on. The rest of the camp ground must have been happy to see the back of us! By the time we finished our breakfast and headed back up, the others were all packing up and S had completely packed up and was leaving! L left not long after. We helped my sister and husband pack up their stuff, and we'd all left by 930.


So, what was meant to be a de-stress weekend didn't really help at all. Andrew's said we'll go back, but maybe next time with just ourselves, or my sister again, or maybe another friend who likes camping... we'll see.




We headed off to Lakeside Raceway after that. It was a massive long day/weekend, but good :)