Sod

Being a parent of grown up children is interesting.  It comes with many challenges.  Hopefully, you will have done a good job and they will be confident, valuable members of society and leave home.  This might make you sad and cause you to drive 300 miles in a day just to see them but it will save you having to live with an adult child.  Many children can't scrape together the deposit for a flat or just like having their laundry done by Mum and their dinners cooked by Dad.

If you have small children, you might want to start planning for this possibility now.  People will tell you to start saving for college but they won't mention the biggest problem you are going to face if your children don't leave home when they become an adult.

My son is having a gap year and so we have the pleasure of his company this year, while he earns some money and does a bit of travelling.  It would be nice if it wasn't for the problem.

Where do you put three cars?

"We thought of that when we bought the house," said our neighbour with three grown up children who all still live at home.
I was impressed.  They moved in when we did - 23 years ago.
They have a large amount of paved space in front of their house, that often has seven or eight cars on.

We decided that we had to sacrifice our front garden.  I won't get rid of the tree, or the hedge but the grass was tatty anyway.  I refuse to pave over.  I worry about flooding, so we have compromised and plumped for gravel.

The Long Suffering Husband has been talking about making the garden a parking space for a while but it was winter and we felt lazy.  Then the local DIY store had a sale. As soon as the birds started singing the LSH jumped out of bed.
"Come on," he said, "there's too much to do.  We've got to dig it all out before the gravel arrives."
I was grumpy.
By the time my son got back from work we had got into it but were beginning to feel a bit old and stiff.  My son, who can usually be a lazy sod, decided he should help, as his failure to leave home had prompted this activity.

A lazy sod standing on his spade

"How far should I dig down?" he asked the LSH
"Just get rid of the sod,"
"That would have been easier," I said looking between the boy and the skip.

A skip full of sod