Clocks

Round 31: August 2034 (Winter)

Araminta's last update/last update/next update

Araminta Romilly is 71, Finn and Victoria are both 33, Declan is 13, Caitlin is 11 and Keira is 3.
(Magdalena is 70, Austin, Justin and Xavier are all 13, Georgina and Annabel are both 10, Daphne is 3 and Francesca is 6 months old)

Narrated by Finn Romilly

Several months after Dad died, I convinced Mum to move in with us. She's retired now and she was on her own and I didn't see any reason why she should have to worry about making ends meet in what is supposed to be a relaxing time in her life.

I really didn't expect Mum to start taking on child care duties with Keira but she's been very insistent on making herself useful.

She even looks after Ione's new little girl, Francesca, during the day as well.

Sometimes she has her friend Magdalena over and they share child care duties. Magdalena is apparently impatiently awaiting more grandchildren, so she's happy to coo over as many little ones as she can in the mean time.

It has been really nice having Mum around, especially for Caitlin.

I hardly ever get to leave school at 3pm, so poor Caitlin often had to wait around with me until I was done with work, because there was no one there for her at home.

Now she can go straight home on the bus and we know she has her grandma there to look out for her.

I've offered to hire a nanny so Mum can go out during the day instead but she won't hear of it.

She says she enjoys spending so much time with her grandchildren and that it was one of the reasons she agreed to move in with us in the first place.

I'm leaving it but I feel a little guilty about it. For the first time in our lives, Victoria and I could easily afford to hire someone for the kids. We've paid off our mortgage and I also received some royalties from a paper I had published.

The paper was about the effect of nutrition on a student's concentration and general achievement levels. I've been researching the topic for quite a long time and it was gratifying to see it so well-received in local education circles.

Victoria was very excited for me and insisted on a date night to celebrate.

I couldn't say no to that. We try to make time for ourselves but it's not always easy with three kids, even with Mum around to help out now.

We ended up going to a restaurant at a local hotel, which was a lot of fun. We always relish any chance we get to spend time alone.

We had Declan so young, so we didn't get much opportunity to do that when we were younger.

That doesn't seem so long ago but Declan is 13 now! Victoria and I weren't really ready for the teen years but so far, so good. Declan is a pretty sensible kid.

We allow him a bit more independence now. He spends most of his weekend at the comic book store with his friend, Austin.

There's only about six months' age difference between Declan and his cousins, Justin and Xavier. They've grown up together and are still pretty close.

Of the four of them, only Xavier has a girlfriend. Declan is still more interested in comics and sci-fi for the time being.

Still, that won't last forever. He still seems so young to me but then I remember Victoria and I started dating at the same age. That's a little scary.

I hope we don't have too much to worry about, seeing Declan has a good head on his shoulders. He's still getting straight As and he spends a good part of his weekday afternoons studying.

I know he would rather be spending some of them working. Specifically, working as an assistant at a laboratory nearby.

Victoria has told him that it's not legal for him to work until next year and that we'd talk about it again then.

He knows it's out of our control but he was a little disappointed.

I told him to enjoy his freedom while it lasts, because we definitely want the kids to have part-time jobs when they're old enough. It's so important for them to learn how to take care of their own money.

I have a feeling we'll get some resistance to that from Caitlin. She gets straight As as well but she's always needed more prodding to get her schoolwork done than her brother. I can't imagine she'll be too thrilled about an after-school job.

She's 11 now and she is all about her social life.

No boys yet, thank goodness, but she has her friends Georgina and Annabel visiting here all the time.

All three of them, Caitlin especially, are desperate to start high school. Caitlin is convinced everything will be more fun once she's 12.

It's "lame" to have your dad as your teacher, apparently. That was heartening to hear.

I seem to remember her thinking it was pretty awesome to have me teaching at her school when she was younger.

Just as Caitlin is finishing primary school, Keira is getting ready to start.

Her little cousin Daphne will be starting with her, so she'll already have at least one friend.

Daphne kind of makes up for the fact that Declan and Caitlin are so much older than Keira. She's almost like a sister to Keira. I still don't think I'll be able to stop myself from peeking into the pre-school room when I get the chance during the day, just to see how she's doing.

I know Victoria will be expecting me to do that anyway! She's been feeling wistful about Keira starting school.

Keira will be the last kid we ever send off to pre-school, so we're looking forward to it and dreading it at the same time!

Extras:
A few pictures of Declan's new bedroom.

He's a Science Sim, with a maxed out interest in sci-fi, in case you couldn't tell. Finn is the same but I wasn't as into decorating by personality when he was a teen.

Also, the magazine rack has some cool "browse" animations that I'd never paid much attention to before.
I'm going to have to go through my animation hacks and see if they're included with any of them! I hope so, because they seem like they could come in handy.

Notes:

• Title is from Clocks by Coldplay.
• Finn's paper being published was based on a chance card win (for once, LOL)!

• Victoria also won a chance card which got her a promotion but it was a pretty weird scenario, so I didn't write it in!
• The comic book store is called The Android's Dungeon, after the comic book store on the Simpsons. It's a little lot that I built for a mini-challenge at N99 well over a year ago and promptly forgot about. Now that I've finally put it into action, I'd kind of like to find somebody to own it and run it as a real business. I don't see Declan doing it but I'll have to watch my other Sims to see if anyone might suit it.
• Declan rolled up the generic want to have his first kiss but he hasn't shown any interest in any specific girls yet. So I guess we'll see if he does roll any more specific wants or if ACR wants to intervene. ;)