How Much Did Sinead, a Teacher and Mother of Five, Spend in a Week in December? | A Guest Money Diary

Including a birthday party, a Christmas concert and a bout of winter coughing

Two days from Roman’s three-month, er, birthday? Anniversary? I am posting the final guest money diary of my quasi maternity leave, meaning I’ll be back with my own money diaries from next week.

Thank you all so much for bearing with me, and I hope you’ve enjoyed hearing a variety of voices! You may remember Sinead’s first guest post, here, and if you like her writing you can subscribe to her Substack here:

A little intro

I’m Sinéad, a teacher and mother of five living in Co Laois, Ireland. I write poems about life and motherhood. I have also written a novel that is currently looking for an agent and am halfway through the first draft of my second novel. Here’s a little breakdown of my family.

B – Husband, M – 9 year old girl, K – 8 year old girl, J – 6 year old boy, SJ – 3 year old girl, L – 1.5 year old girl

Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash

Monday

My alarm buzzes at 5.30am. I’ve been awake with L since 3am and she’s just closed her eyes again so I elect to dismiss it until the 6am alarm goes off.

As soon as I rest my head, M arrives in to bed, bringing the count of children to three beside me. At 6.13am SJ needs water and a wee so we’re up.

The kids lounge on the couch while I make lunches and breakfast. Lunches are sandwiches (luncheon roll for the eldest, plain ham for the next two as they’ve decided they NEVER LIKED cheese and ham and cheese for me and SJ), while the older ones have a pancake and will get a hot lunch in school. I pack chocolate for myself.

Breakfasts are toasties for the kids and a bowl of cereal for me with a cup of coffee. I sit to do my morning pages (badly, as I'm interrupted at least 100 times) and then I begin the battle that is getting five children dressed for school/creche.

I head to work, get myself a coffee and begin a busy day. It’s Christmas concert week so lessons are punctuated with rehearsing lines and practising movement on stage. I have the added responsibility of managing the MCs backstage and organising the programmes. I’m suitably exhausted leaving school.

Mondays are busy at home. I feed the children and get them ready for their activities. We have one in gymnastics from 5pm until 7pm. As a squad member K has gym three times a week for two hours each session, so myself and another mammy take turns, which greatly alleviates the pressure to be so many places at one time.

B works every Monday evening so he drops her. I collect the smallies from creche at 4.30pm. M usually has basketball at 5.45pm. Tonight, though, I am relieved of the basketball duties as M has a headache. I think she’s just exhausted. She hardly slept a wink at the weekend after Storm Darragh.

I decide I’ll get loads of jobs done around the house instead. I open the washing machine to a flood of water spilling out onto the floor. After the electricity went at the weekend, I had abandoned the washing, apparently to my own detriment, as my shoes take the most of the water. I soak up what I can and mop the mess. I put the clothes back on for another cycle as they stink after soaking in stagnant water for so long.

The kids eat scrambled eggs and toast for supper and settle down for some telly before bed. I make himself potatoes, veg and pork chops before beginning the bedtime battle. Our “routine” involves the TV minding the kids as I take them to bed starting with the youngest, and finishing with the two eldest. I have to stay with all of them as they fall asleep, usually to some form of guided meditation.

In a despair induced fit I email three women to see if they are available to do a weekly clean of the house. My house is in a consistent state of mess, I can barely see the floors most days and I’m constantly drowning in a sea of plastic and laundry. I need help.

I’m not sure if anyone is interested in how many times the baby wakes but before I scoop her up and bring her to bed at 11.15pm it was three times. This continues through the night as she has the same cough that’s doing the rounds here.

My payment for Sophie White’s Death is Coming Substack comes out. (€5)

Paid a debt of €10 for hairbands.

Daily total: €15