MyThreeDaughters

There is a rule of thumb for taking kids somewhere: I think it suggests that you allow 10 minutes per child to get them and their stuff rounded up and out the door. So for you math-heads: Three kids equals 30 minutes.
Yesterday, a first-hand experiment (taking them to the beach) produced a corollary to the rule of thumb:
For each minute you plan to spend on the beach, you need to spend an equal amount of time packing.
It took us from about 9 a.m. until 10:45 to pack: wash grapes and cherries, slice bread and cheese for snack, wash travel cups and load with ice and water, find sand shovel and bucket bin, beach umbrella, extra diaper, wipes (in case), small cooler, beach towels, drying off towels.
And then the back-breaker: smear ‘em up with so much suntan lotion that, by the end of summer, they’d still blend in with a polar bear.
One hour forty five minutes, and we weren’t staying overnight.
Once at the beach, the girls again successfully divided and conquered.
Rosebud, 2, only wanted to play on the beach blanket with wife. No going to the end of the water because it was “scary.” Elizabeth, 4.75 years, wanted to play at the edge of the water. Fontaine, 7, wanted to go in deep and bob over the waves.
So wife and I are tried to patrol a front that stretched from the blanket to about 50 feet in the water.
A couple of times, one of us tried to dispatch Elizabeth from one end of the line to the other. It’s like when the receiver goes out for a long pass in football, and the quarterback throws the ball and it gets hung up in the wind.
“OK, go straight to Mommy, see her up there?”
Heads straight, sees a shell, looks down, staggers toward the wrong blanket.
“ELIZABETH, NO, MOMMY’S OVER THERE!”
Wander. Stagger. Sea shell. Airplane. Wander. Stumble. Gosh I love them, man this is great, I remember the ocean when I was a kid, all the sand would get in your swimming suit and pile up in your…
“NEXT TO YOU! TO THE RIGHT! NO, WRONG BLANKET!”
Ah, there you go, there’s Mommy.
Now, where’s Fontaine?!
Stayed on the beach for two hours, bettering the new corollary by a full 30 minutes.
(As long as you don’t count the unloading and clean-up).
Let’s not count it, and call it a win.