I don’t know the best way to say this, so I’m just going to say it. As a parent you should already know this:
Things are probably not going to go as planned.
Let me give you some examples of how this has worked out for us.
We didn’t get an offer on our house the first week.
You might think I mean this as some kind of joke.
I don’t.
My husband was upset we didn’t have an offer after our house was on the market for 3 days. All of the stories we heard were: “I put my house on the market and had a full cash offer in 18 hours without the buyers ever even seeing the house.” “We did an open house when we put our house on the market around Thanksgiving and one of the people that came to the first open house bought our house.”
That is not what the market looks like in our area right now.
But we had high expectations.
It’s been on the market over a month and we haven’t had an offer.
The kids got sick.
Yeah, you probably know this one too. What’s the worst timing for the kids to get sick? That’s when they will get sick. And it was the stomach flu.
Who would have thought it would be baby #3 that would be the first to puke in the car?
Not me.
It happened while we had a showing at our house no less. They were still here 5 minutes before the hour was up! I had to run in and grab cleaning supplies while they were still here and of course “My 1 year old just puked in my car and I need to grab some cleaning supplies.” just came flying out of my mouth.
Yeah, I wouldn’t want to buy this house if that happened while I was here looking at it either.
We’ve barely been in the office our last two weeks at work.
The worst part about the baby getting sick was it came right on the heels of 3 days off school for the kindergartner and in my last full week of work. Between my husband and I we were home all week last week plus the Friday before and the Monday after.
So, if you have big plans to accomplish a lot your last couple weeks at work, beware. A bunch of stuff will probably come up and you won’t get nearly as much work done as expected.
In fact I should be at work right now, but I’m taking a sick day to stay home with the baby (which honestly, is totally fine with me). Thankfully I had some sick time though. There’s just a little bit of guilt about actually using it…
Think showings will be scheduled for when you’re already planning to be out of the house?
Think again.
Showings are always at the most inconvenient times.
For one showing my husband had to be out of the house with the kindergartner during a work call while his car was in the shop.
We had an 8:30 am showing on a Saturday! Followed by 12-1 and then 1:45-2:45.
Seriously, we’re normally out of the house all week. Now you want to ruin our whole Saturday and make it impossible for us to clean and do laundry?
Yes, that’s exactly how it goes.
But, you don’t have to stress about any of that stuff because you don’t have control over it. You don’t control the school calendar and you surely don’t control when your kids get sick. You don’t control other people’s schedules either.
Focus on what you can control and let go of the rest. Make it as simple as possible and you will get through it.
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