Used to be in my old working-outside-the-home life I was always busy doing something. Projects to finish, people to manage, meetings to attend, and meetings to prepare for. All of this was generally planned in advance and my secretary would print out a nice little schedule in the morning so I could get through my day seamlessly. This whole stay-at-home-mom thing is a different ball of wax. Most of the time I meander through and, essentially get nothing done.
It's as if there is always some Schedule Gremlin in the day that makes getting shit finished impossible. I can't even recall what these gremlins are on a daily basis - - but at the end of each day I am clueless as to why I didn't get done what I thought I was going to get done. Frustration reigns. Honestly? How hard is it to keep a house clean, manage the kid's schedules and prepare a nutritiously balanced yet tasty dinner? Ummm, the answer would be DAMN hard.
I think that part of the problem since we moved to SF is that I am now "THE BUS." The boys have always taken a bus to school. We have also typically lived a fair piece from the school so their pick up time was somewhere between 7:15 and 7:30. They were generally returned to me right to my door around 4ish. This made for a nice long day. Now that I am "THE BUS" and we live close to the school, we don't leave until somewhere between 7:50 and 8:00. I don't get back home until 8:30 and I need to leave the house by 3:00 to get there on time for pick up. My time frame for getting things done has gone from 8.5 hours to 6.5 hours. It's killing me.
Several years ago I was talking to a friend who had made the decision to stay home and raise her kids. She was lamenting about how she really wanted to get a job, one that would exercise her mind and give her a greater sense of self-worth. Problem was, she just couldn't figure out how she was going to fit a job in with all the things that she had to do to run her house and take care of the kids. I sat in my nice corner office, crossed my stocking-clad legs, adjusted the skirt of my suit and said to myself, "I guess I am just more organized than you." What a crock.
Most interestingly, I often try to remember how everything got done. Perhaps it just didn't get done? I can't remember. Maybe when you're working, you don't have time to obsess over the fact that there are hand-prints on the wall leading down to the basement or that the ironing is piling up at the rate of a commercial laundry or that they really really need parent drivers for the trip to the Asian museum. Perhaps you use alternative methods of getting things done (secretary, housekeeper, nanny, dry cleaners) to off load that stuff. But what about all those working moms who don't have those resources? They still get it done. Somehow.
Fact is - - I'm not getting it done now and I have nothing else really pressing on my plate. So, to my friend (who didn't even know I was smugly being superior) -- my most deepest apologies. I can ABSOLUTELY see what you were talking about!
Finally, as to the comments about the whole naked thing at the spa. Perhaps I wasn't clear. YES, of course I had a nice plush robe!!! It's just that I wore my birthday suit underneath the robe and everyone else wore their bathing suit. Consider yourselves informed.
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