When the Grandchildren come to stay
Pack away all the breakables, remove all the hazards, lock up all the pills. Put the matches on the top shelf. Now you think the house is childproof.
Within an hour or two of their arrival they manage to find things you lost or misplaced months ago, half of which should be on the breakable/hazard list.
Then you discover, when you set out on a planned outing, that one or more of the child safety seats is in their parent’s car or left back at their own home – so you beg, borrow or steal replacement seats from your neighbours.
At bed time, you discover that one or more of the essential “comfort” bears are missing – presumably tucked safely in bed back at their own home. So it’s a twenty mile roundtrip late evening journey to bring the missing bear(s) back. (Assuming you have remembered to bring their keys with you).
After the grand kids are safely handed over to their parents and the dust settles and peace falls on your home once again, less than twenty minutes later the phone rings and a search is initiated for the bear(s) which have gone AWOL again. They are found safely tucked under the sheets in the guest bedroom. Another twenty mile round trip journey is undertaken to take the missing bear(s) back home again.
This is a fairly normal weekend routine at our house.