Peanut and a wedding!

This week has been one of recovery; we’ve had quite a stressful run in recent weeks and so in a bid to wind down and chill the hell out, we made very few plans and decided to take everyday as it comes. It all started a couple of weeks ago with a nasty incident that involved a tired and wobbly Peanut, a stupidly placed floor cushion and an equally stupidly placed wicker basket; all which resulted is a monster graze on poor little Peanuts face and the prospect of showing off my beautiful daughter to friends at a wedding with an injury that made me look like a clumsy mum.

So following the initial mix of emotions – anger at nursery, guilt for being angry at those lovely ladies and then sympathy for my girl – lots of cuddles, Sudocreme and a few chocolate buttons here and there did the job and her graze was healed by the time the wedding came around. The graze was the least of my problems and probably should have been a sign of the stress that was about to ensue. From this experience I can only offer this nugget of advice: If you’re going to a wedding either don’t take your child, or ensure you’ve got some kind of help.

Peanuts Daddy was on best man duties which meant (and something I failed to grasp the full severity of) that I was alone. This wasn’t a family wedding but rather a friend’s special day so this meant that none of my own family were present, the only friends that were there also had children and their husbands there to help.

I repeat; I was alone.

Getting ready for a wedding when you have a toddler is impossible, and by the time I was made up and had my dress and heels on, I was a sweaty hot mess and dreading the hour-and-a-half wait between the ceremony and the meal. Peanut had nodded off before the ceremony but woke up seconds into it which did present a problem – a ratty child with no idea of where she was – and as a result of this she was clingy and wouldn’t sit in her pushchair behind heads and shoulders so obviously I had to hold her and as soon as she clocked her Daddy at the front of the room she wanted him. We got through the ceremony with minimal disruption though and she was a good, quiet girl but once she got outside she just wanted to run around. Big problem when you’re in heels because you can’t chase a child without it ending badly. The area wasn’t enclosed and at either end of the terrace were a busy and big car park, and a golf course – sod losing a toddler on a golf course! This was the most testing part of the day and while Peanuts Daddy was schmoozing with the grooms family and friends, I was running around and sweating in 30 degree heat! To say I was at the end of my tether would not be giving the situation any justice; I was stressed to hell and ready to cry. The meal came a couple of hours later and my feet were in bits… thank god for chicken, chips and ice cream as this meant Peanut sat happily eating her food and playing with toys in the highchair as the speeches went on.

6pm arrived! Oh god bless 6pm and babysitters!! Finally I was free of responsibility and I could enjoy a glass of wine and a few too many rums – I wasn’t wishing Peanut away that day, I just wish that I had some help and everything didn’t fall on me. Parenting is hard at the best of times, but facing it alone isn’t something I could ever imagine and I have huge amounts of respect and admiration for those that do.

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