Help! What have I got myself into?

What happens when a 24 year old with no kids and hardly any responsibilities inherits her 6 year old nephew on a full-time basis... A whole lot of tears, laughs and fun, and probably the same from my nephew too.

In August last year me and my best guy friend decided it was time for an adventure, so we decided to pack up and move our lives from a small town in New Zealand, to my family in the middle of nowhere in an Australian desert. The plan was, to stay with my parents for a couple of months until we found jobs and a house in Adelaide. Since then there has been a whirlwind of changes happen, for one, I fell in love with my best friend who is now my best friend and partner. Two, we found out in October that my precious 2 year old niece has Leukemia, and last but definitely not least, we inherited my 6 year old nephew. 

Seeing as we live so far away from anything, my niece was flown out to Adelaide hospital, where they have the correct resources to help Lexi get better. Adelaide is about 6 hours away from home.

I offered to look after Lexi's brother Jakobi while they were down in Adelaide, as Jakobi still had school and it would be one less thing that their mum and dad would have to stress about. At this stage we were not sure exactly how long they would be in Adelaide for. 

This is where my story begins.

At first I thought it would be lots of fun to have Kobi for a while, we were very close and have always had a special bond. Lets just say it was a big change for the both of us...

After a few days, my "coolness" started to wear off. Things like 'sure you can have chicken nuggets for dinner every night' changed to 'just try this, it's good for you' and 'no you can't have peanut butter sandwiches for breakfast, lunch and dinner'. Boy, was I a monster at bedtime, I got 'Dolly, I just don't know how to go to sleep, I'm just not tired' and my reply was 'just close your eyes you will be all good' well how dare I! What a monster. Although my heart did not fully turn to stone, as I could never say no when he wanted to sleep in our bed. Every time he did this, I would wait until I went to bed and I would put him back in his own bed, although most of the time we would both fall asleep and Shane would have to move him, if he could be bothered, although I think it only took one night of getting kicked in the back by tiny little feet for him to make sure he could be bothered putting Kobi back in his own bed. I tried to get him into a routine, come home from school, get changed, dirty clothes in the laundry, empty school bag and then homework and a snack. Well that all worked fine, right up until the homework part. That was not his favourite thing to do. Anyway, it took a while but we got it in the end. He realised that the faster he did his homework, the more time he would have to play. 

After the first couple of weeks, my best friend from NZ, Sammy came over, to help out and for a mini holiday, Kobi grew quite fond of her, as she is quite similar to his mum. Which was good for the both of them. But this is where the tears started. One night he was tired and grumpy he had a big week at school, and he just refused to do anything I said. He wouldn't eat his dinner, he sat at the table saying things like 'I don't have to eat this, you aren't the boss of me, only dad can tell me what to do'. I brushed it off, but deep down it hurt a little, but he is 6 and that is just what they do. It was getting late, so I told him he wasn't allowed to watch tv before bed. Well that was a mistake. 'You are the biggest jerk ever' is what I copped, again, shrugging it off, I calmly told him it was time for him to get into the shower. Bing bong! Wrong command again lady! As this 6 year old is howling in the shower saying things like 'I hate you, I wish someone else was looking after me, I am never going to listen to you again' and all other kinds of lovely things like that, emotionless, I got him out of the shower, dried and into his PJ's and off to bed he went. This is where I start. I walked out into the kitchen and Sammy was making coffee. I looked at her and burst into tears. I thought I was the meanest person ever, and how could someone who looked up to me as 'the cool one' suddenly hate me. Sam finally calmed me down by saying something along the lines of 'stop being a jerk, he is tired and doesn't mean any of it!' He got up the next morning and apologised for being a jerk, and off he went to school. 

I tried to make everything as fun as possible for him, as I knew he would find it hard being away from the rest of his family. We would go on date nights, to the movies or out for dinner, we would go to the park or he would have his best friend Gemma over for sleepovers or to play, or he would go to hers. We tried things like baking, science experiments and doing some art.

I started to get tired, and I think I may have even got a little bit depressed. I felt like I was on my own. I found myself doing the same thing day in and day out, I felt like a robot. I got up, got ready for work and got Kobi ready for school. Fed him his breakfast, which always took what felt like 3 hours. I dropped him off at school and went straight out to work. I would come home, sit down for 2 seconds and it was time to pick Kobi up from school. We would get home I would get him changed and then chuck him in the car and we would head back out to work. I was extremely lucky that my boss was very understanding and would let me bring him to work with me. He loved it too. Once we were done at work we would go to the supermarket, which he hated with a passion, to find something that he would actually eat for dinner. Then back into the car, and off home we would go. When we got home we would do homework while I get dinner ready. We would have dinner, and Kobi would have some free time to play or watch some tv. While he was doing this, I would do the dishes, and get his lunch ready for school the next day. Then it would be shower or bath time, then bedtime. We would read a few books or I would make up some story and then off to sleep he would go. This is where I thought my day would end. But boy was I wrong. I did load after load of washing, it came from nowhere. I don't know how such a small family could have so much laundry everyday. Once that was done, I cleaned the house, and again I don't know how someone so small, who seems to be with me all the time can make such a mess. Although it only took me a few days that he wasn't the only one leaving a mess. But by the time I had finished tidying up it was bedtime for me too. I was exhausted all the time, and felt like I had no time to myself. I got especially upset when I would say something, or there would be one thing I didn't do, or forgot to do and Shane would say to me something along the lines of 'you don't have a real job, I don't know why you are tired' or I would ask him to do something and he would be like 'why? you don't work, why can't you do it?' I would actually walk somewhere and cry. Once Kobi found me sitting outside crying. He looked shocked, he probably didn't think monsters have feelings too. He put his arm around me and said everything will be okay because I had him, well that made me cry even more. He told me that he loved me and he thought I was doing a good job. That's when everything felt better. That one tiny little moment, made everything worth it. So I picked myself up, wiped my eyes and did another load of washing.

Soon enough it was school holidays. Well I started to freak out. What was I supposed to do then? Was I supposed to take 8 weeks off work to look after him? Was I supposed to put him into holiday care, or send him to a sitter. Luckily I didn't really need to worry about that as he ended up going down to Adelaide a bit earlier than I expected and he stayed a while longer too. He is due to come home next week. It can't come quick enough. I can't wait. I have seen him a few times since he has been down there but I can't wait to have him home so I can have kisses, which he has made very clear that I am only allowed 2 per day. And cuddles, which he has made quite clear that I can have as many as I would like. I am happy with that.He got a new Ipad for Christmas as his old one was very slow, he thought there was a ghost in it. His mum has set him up a kids Icloud account, which means he can now message and call my phone from his Ipad. I thought that was awesome, but within probably 2 hours he had facetimed me about 7 times. I messaged him telling him I missed him, he replied with OK. How lovely of him right?

But all in all, I wouldn't change it for the world, I love my little family... Well for now at least. We will see what he is like when he gets home.

 Here is a photo of Jakobi and Shane, wearing matching rugby gear.