Summer of Chaos

The girls, now ages 7 & 8, have reached the age where spending their summer in day care is not their idea of a good time.  So........we came up with a plan about February that we would hire a student this summer to care for them out of our home, with the idea that they could stay very busy with activities.  The perfect summer, right?  Go to the library, and the park, and the swimming pool.  Do arts & crafts.  Play games.  Play in the yard.  In theory, it all sounded perfect.  But in theory, I seem to have forgotten that: 1)  I run a very busy appraisal business from our home, 2) children this age will all test an authority figure if there is another authority figure present, and 3) my youngest has a very challenging neuro-developmental disorder that includes manipulation at the highest levels.  UGH!

So each morning, our babysitter arrives.  She has honestly done FAR better than I would have if the roles were reversed.  FAR FAR FAR far better.   But still.......the noise level is through the roof and anytime she asks/tells them to do something that they don't want to do, they run to ME to see if they can get me to allow whatever it is they want.  I'm doing my darndest to reinforce the babysitter's authority when she's here, and send them back to her.  But in the meantime, I'm pulling my hair out.

So......whose idea was this???  :)