Today I realized that one day, probably sooner rather than later, the little guy's going to stop napping. And I will never. accomplish. anything. I'm not sure how I can have LESS time than I have now, even though I know it's true. The boy is edging awful close to one nap a day and even when he takes two I spend the whole time playing catch-up with the damn dishes. (Or sweeping or cleaning the toilet or frantically cooking turkey and squash so he'll have something for his next meal.) Naps are no longer luxurious stretches of writing time. Post-putting-the-baby-to-bed-still-more-dishes-cleaning-the-kitchen-sweeping-the-floor-taking-out-the-diaper-pail - is the only time I have to work on my writing and it seems to be taken up by email and the increasingly infrequent blog entry. When I was a nanny I used to get my nose out of joint because the woman I worked for would slip out to go to the gym or have lunch with her friends while I watched her kid. Back then I was so superior with my "I would NEVER!" attitude, fancying myself a better person. Now? Please. If I had the money, hell yeah I'd hire someone to watch my kid for 3 hours so I could go out! I have profound respect for the fact that she felt her time was valuable enough to make a priority instead of sitting around bitching about her loss of self.
Gotta get my hands on some cash... and maybe another glass of wine...
(But look at that boy with his squinchy nose! How could I forgo that?)
6 comments:
By the time he has outgrown naps, hopefully he will also be doing things like preschool, or regular school and that will buy you some extra time. Also once he is a couple years older, he will be able to entertain himself for longer periods of time, thus again allowing you some time. But the tough mommy reality is that time for you will be in short supply until they is grown and gone.
These were the years when I personally began to change my standards about things like a clean house and other similar things.
It will be better eventually, but if you are like me and many of the other mothers I know, you may never again feel that you have enough time. Ever. (Oops is that some of my own issue coming out there? Surely not!!)
Kaylee's three and a half and still takes one two-ish hour nap every day.
Hell, so do I when I can manage it.
"Grown and gone"! (weeps...)
It's the figuring out how to not have to WORK during the nap that gets me, D. Once I discover that...
Well, from my perspective, you can either work during naps or save it all until he goes to sleep at night.
The work's gotta get done sometime. Unless you've got a cleanin' lady stashed away somewhere?
Then again, you should see the state of MY house! We're in a bare minimum cleaning level. We go crazy if we're about to have folks over for dinner or a party, but other than that...there's STUFF everywhere.
Where are all of my flat surfaces?!
enter..... why some mommys let their kids occasionly watch tv. i'm not ashamed to say that i'll let mine watch a half hour of either commercial-free kid's tv or a video so i can make sure we're not living in a sty and that my family has clean clothes to wear. hell, i'm not a machine!
I hear the wisdom, ladies. Let me tell you, TV is sounding mighty fine right about now...
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