Meet the Minions

For starters we had better introduce the family. As the blog title suggests it consists of Esther, Charlie and 6 minions. Minion 1 is Shaun and he is only at home some of the time as he is at University studying medicine (forgive me, I'm a proud Mum and always have to get that one in, you'd be amazed at the conversations I manage to slip it into. Just the other day I even managed to tell the car wash guy at Sainsburys), Minion 2 is  the Kyle, then there's James (aka Minion 3, you can probably see where we are going with the whole minion thing) and the three girls Minions 4, 5, and 6.

Labour Potential of the Minions

The minions have a varied pool of skills and managing them is a challenging task in itself.

Minion 1 is strong and fit and, if you can ignore the constant references to his 'guns' and keep him away from anything flammable, is very helpful. But his usefulness as a garden slave is limited by the amount of time he is home which isn't a lot these days.

Minion 2 hates gardening and is usually employed in feeding the troops (he makes a mean toastie).

Minion 3 needs sufficient motivation to drag him away from his computer screen but can be quite helpful when he has been nagged into submission.

Minion 4 and Minion 3 share a love of the screen and often work together and slope off together. Just the other day they disappeared from garden duty and were found asleep on the sofas. Therefore, they need careful supervision.

Minion 5 is a dynamo and never runs out of energy. She is the only one who stays out all day whatever the weather. Even though she is still quite small she does more than the rest put together and will prove a great asset in the future.

Minion 6 has minimal labour potential at the moment being only 4 months of age but she's great at heckling and shouts orders from her pink baby chair.

So there you have it. This is the minion household. It's noisy and messy but never dull.