Last year we cared for two girls, I'll call them Belle and Zandri... they lived in a nice three bedroom house (granted one of the rooms was a box room, but anyway). They moved into a big six bedroom house, bought by their parents and grandmother (whose house was in Somerset) selling both of their houses and pooling the money to get a bigger place for them all to live in. The girls left us as the Gran said that she'd take over taking them to school (we were sad, but kids come and go). All good so far.
Moving on to today:
The Grandmother has a new boyfriend (who moved in with them all a month after they moved in themselves!!) and is talking about buying a house with him as "it could be my last chance at love"... meaning that she's going to want the money from the sale of her house. Problem being that the money was used to buy the six bedroom place that her family are currently living in... meaning that the house would have to be sold in order for her to have her money back, so that she and the new bloke could buy a house together back in Somerset... meaning that her daughter, son-in-law and two granddaughters would be effectively homeless until they could find something to buy with the money that is left from the house sale (assuming that the house could be sold in the current economic climate, and assuming they could find a house big enough for the four of them and their stuff with the money that was left as London house prices are rising again).
I know that the Gran pressured them into the sale in the first place, using the old "I want to retire and don't want to be alone, I've fallen once recently and want to be around people that could help me if it ever happened again, I really want to spend the rest of my days with the people I love" spiel. So after she managed to get her own way she's suddenly decided that as she has a new man it's all got to change! She wants to go out whenever she pleases (which is the reason that I've had to rearrange the kids here so that I can go and get her granddaughters as she has had a better offer from "loverboy"... luckily it was possible as Wednesday is the day that E is collected by her Grandad anyway, and Mum is able to get the bus to get the two boys). Even so, they left on the premise that she would take care of the kids, and now I'm having to try and pick up the slack that she is leaving (granted I don't have to, but I just can't sit by and see nice people that I care about treated in such a bad way, by the very woman that took away my job in the first place!)
I just don't understand what the woman is thinking?! Why would you uproot your family from a house they loved, and move them to a place that is strange to them, where they have no friends, which means that your grandkids are going to have to leave the people they have known all their lives, to change your mind less than a year later... I just do not understand that, I really don't! Mum spoke to the Mum of the girls (I'll call her Cat) this morning, and she is worried sick all the time about what is going to happen in the future regarding her home and her family. The girls' Dad (I'll call him Orly) is off work sick today, and it would never surprise me if it was this whole situation that is causing at least some of it. I just think that the Grandmother is a total bitch and she has to rank as one of the most selfish women I've ever met... so much for "being with the family I love". I'm equally disgusted by the Grandmother and devastated for the people that are too nice to be treated in this way by their own mother-figure!
What a great role model for young girls... do whatever is right for yourself and fuck everyone else!
**edited to add**
When I took Belle home, "Granny" was still there!! (and so was the boyfriend, James, and very posh he sounded, too). So why the hell did I have to go and get Belle, why couldn't she have got her? She wasn't dressed up in any way (as she would be if she'd been going somewhere nice, the past has proved this, very modest and prim!), so I'm wondering just why I had to do it??!!
