12.03.2010

Dose of Reality

You know those scenes in cartoons where the babysitter cracks the door open and behind her you see a child hanging from the ceiling, feathers flying through the air, a dog covered in leftover breakfast food and the family fish lying on the floor gasping for air?

That would be about the scene here on Jimmy Isle today. It is almost lunchtime, I am still in my pjs--not by choice but because before I could take a step up the stairs something would crash or bang causing me to fly over the banister to make sure there was no blood or broken limbs. Loulie has refused to take a nap this morning. I have been trying to put lights on the tree for about two hours. Instead of showing interest in decorating the tree, she has removed all the cushions from the sofa and is dive bombing onto them. Bridget thinks the tree lights are a chew toy. And everywhere I turn a random object is in a new and interesting place. It seems Loulie has taken a liking to the recycling bin leaving me to find a carton of milk in her cabinet, an empty jar of jelly on the stairs, a calculator in the vegetable drawer and my favorite, some (unused) female products in Bert's laundry pile. Nice!

Last year on this exact day, I ended my glorious 12 weeks of maternity leave and headed back to work. Beyond stressed and sick to my stomach over leaving my baby, I hated hearing stay at home mothers talk about how stressed and worn out they were. I remember thinking they had it made. I also remember thinking when I left my job to spend 24 hrs a day with my Bug and Bridget Bojangles that life would somewhat slow down. That things would magically get done because I would have all this extra time. WRONG!!!
Having now experienced both sides of the coin I have come to this conclusion--no mother, stay at home or working has it any easier than the other. We are all linked by the same concerns, stress over making everything perfect, and an ambition to please ____ (the boss, the husband, the kids). In looking back over the year, some things have become easier while other challenges have reared their ugly head. The bottom line is this--it will always be something and no matter how hard we work, a perfect Christmas is not created out of hard work and piles of presents; it is out of memories with our family and time spent together. ( I make this sound so easy, don't I?) So while at this very moment, I would like to go shower and spend some quiet time away from this house while my fairy godmother finishes the decorating, cleaning and childcare; I am going to challenge myself to relax and enjoy the fact that Louie thinks the funniest thing in the world is to hang ornaments off of Bridget. In fact, I know that in a few years this will be one of my favorite memories.
So relax and enjoy the weekend! Happy first few days of advent! Cheers to used coffee filters showing up in your clean laundry!!!
I am off to squeeze my Bug and BB and put a lock on that recycling bin :)

1 comment:

  1. thanks for writing this, I LOVE your perspective as working and stay at home. Listen girl, you will rock it out with whatever you are doing and I'm thankful you're going at it before I have to so you can help keep me sane :) Merry Christmas!

    ReplyDelete