Empty nesting is absolutely crap

With Mrs Ottawacker out at the crack of dawn and not back till after 10pm (ah, the perils of going to conferences in your home city), it was up to me to pull my finger out and do some parenting. Despite the miserable weather (I mean, look at the state of the blip!), with even more miserable weather due to come tomorrow, the day went smoothly enough, and I even managed to get some additional chores done (such as the laundry and calling JG, a friend who is due to go in for an operation on Friday).
 
At the scheduled time, Ottawacker Jr returned home from school, asked if he could have his xBox (Wednesday is one of his negotiated days) and the post-school day started. Ten minutes later, however, there was a knock on the door. It was the neighbour’s son, C.
 
“Can Ottawacker Jr come out?”
“No, go away.”
“Can Ottawacker Jr come out?”
“No, go away.”
“I’ll keep on saying it until you say yes.”
“Alright then.”
 
And out he went. An hour later, the phone rings and Ottawacker Jr is asking if he can stay to eat next door.
“Does this mean I don’t have to cook you dinner?”
“Yes.”
“Or tell you off for eating with your head on your plate?”
“Yes.”
“Or nag you to clean up afterwards?”
“Yes.”
“Away you go…”
 
And with that, I was alone. I did a little more work – then came down and put the dinner I’d pre-prepared back in the fridge, heating myself some turkey and potato leftovers from Sunday. Then I wandered around the house aimlessly for half an hour before sitting down to watch the news, getting up five minutes later, wandering a bit more (even more aimlessly), cleaning up, folding the laundry and realizing that I actually like cooking the Ottawackers dinner, I enjoy spending time with them individually and together, and that the house felt incredibly empty without them.
 
Fortunately, he was back at 7, asking for more food.
“Have a banana,” I said.
 
So he did. And we finished off the last part of the Lord of the Rings: Two Towers together (even though it wasn’t the weekend) and sat together on the sofa to watch an episode of Only Fools and Horses, which contained plenty of “plonkers” and other words that make him giggle. And I enjoyed the time very much.