Lending A Hand

We have a house guest tonight! One of Ray’s friends is having a sleepover in our house. His mother is a friend of ours who Mrs Levee sees fairly regularly at mother and toddler groups and so on.

Why is this important? Well, I complained a few days ago about the lack of support we receive from our extended family. We’re not alone.

Mrs Levee’s friend is more then 30 weeks pregnant, and has recently run into complications with the pregnancy which could be dangerous for her and the baby if she doesn’t get proper rest. And with two young kids, you know that’s not easy. There’s a very real chance she might become hospitalized, if only for her own safety. You would think that in her situation, family would be rallying round to help out.

You’d be wrong.

In particular, she’s having difficulties getting her in-laws to help out. Many of her own relatives are only willing to take one of the kids at a time, but this doesn’t offer much opportunity for relaxation.

So Mrs Levee and I offered to take the eldest boy (who’s in Ray’s class) overnight and keep him until tomorrow to give her a rest - one of her sisters is looking after the youngest. Not that this is much sacrifice: he’s a pleasant little guy, keeps our two in good company and tidies up after himself.

The point here is practicing what you preach. If we’re going to complain about people not supporting us, then we’ve got to turn things around by offering to help others out where we can. It’s not really much effort, but makes an amazing difference to people’s lives.