all came out of it still talking to each other! The hard part was actually getting my MIL to NOT do things for us. We said we’d cook for ourselves but we’d come home from work and she’d have food on the table and give us the “you can’t waste food spiel” so we’d eat it. We said we’d do our own washing but would come home and find that she’d gone through our room to not only find dirty clothes but to put clean clothes away AND rearrange drawers to her liking! I blew a fuse each time this happened because it felt like such an invasion of privacy. Our bedroom was the only room in the house that was ours. These are boundaries that need to be set and understood. We contributed to the

Layout designed by Kirstie Ibrahim  
click to enlarge

bills equally with everyone else so that was never a problem. Remembering to let others know that you won’t be home is a common courtesy as is letting others know when you are expecting friends to come over. Oh the memories this brings back! In the end, we paid off our block of land and built our house a lot earlier than we would have if we hadn’t moved in. 

My father found himself in circumstances where he needed to find a new place to live. This happened just as I was about to go back to work after having my first baby. After lengthy discussions Dad moved in under the arrangement that it would be for a year as we hoped that I’d be pregnant with our second child by then. Plans change!! I had my second child and third child before Dad moved out – 3 years later!!

The benefits were having a live in babysitter who knew the kids routines, likes and dislikes. Dad also likes to cook so would help out with family meals as well as taking the garbage out and mowing the lawn much to the liking of my husband of course. It also meant I could “duck out quickly” instead of having to take 3 kids under the age of 4 with me. The downside, Dad was always there, in our face, adding his two cents! He went everywhere with us and our friends became his, he was living our life instead of having a life of his own. He now lives 15 minutes drive away, not too close and not too far! We still have Dad as an on call babysitter but at the end of the day he goes home to his own house. 

Writer: Kirstie Ibrahim
Kirstie Ibrahim is one of the talented TDS Layout Artist as well as Creative Team member to a few prestige designers. Her layouts have been featured numerous times in scrapbooking magazines and you will see more of her articles soon in one of them. Visit her Gallery to get to know her a little more.