Time and Again
Posted by doularama | Filed under Parenting
So often I hear people say that there just aren’t enough hours in a day. I can understand the complaint. By the time you go to bed, there are always so many things that didn’t get done. There are leftover projects, in my case some are more than a decade old, and of course the little tasks you just didn’t get to. Today I was going to vaccuum and mop, clean the bathroom, go to the post office, buy a bottle of wine and wrap it in a gift, take my children to the playground, cook, fold and put away some laundry and change my toenail polish. Instead, by 6:30 in the morning, I was cleaning up more blood than should have resulted from a little bump to my daughter’s nose while trying to quiet the wails of the emotionally injured party and my son, the terrified accidental injurer. I could tell by then that we were going to have a busy day (as if my mental to-do list wouldn’t have already given me that idea).
I managed to clean the blood off of the floor and out of my daughter’s pajamas and proceeded to tackle my list. By the end of the day, I had gone to the post office and the liquor store, taken the children to the playground and given them a long bubble bath, folded and put away the laundry, assembled, but not wrapped the gift, made green smoothies and frozen some into pops, heated up leftovers and watched a movie (Doubt- great characters and Meryl Streep is fabulous!) and typed in only the title of this post as “today” is actually yesterday because I was too exhausted to stay up and write it.
By the time I got to the playground, having walked uphill while pushing a loaded stroller in thick NYC August HEAT, I was ready to have the day end. While most people complain that they don’t have enough hours in a day, I think that there are just too many!
I have gotten many an awed and respectful look when I tell people that my children are asleep by 7 o’clock. Frankly, they’ve done so much by then, I wouldn’t be able to keep them up if I wanted to. Then they say something like, “Then you have all that time to yourself.” Sure. That’s when I should work on my art or writing, organize papers, even finish some household chores, ooh have a bubble bath, but by 7:01, I’m ready to go to sleep myself. I usually stay up because I don’t want my husband to watch a movie without me. Often, however, we watch half a movie because he finds me with my eyes closed at some point.
I can’t even imagine what it would be like without my wonderful husband. He does so much for me and still, things don’t get done and everyone is pooped before the end of the day. Time usually moves too quickly for us all, leaving us with more to do tomorrow, but tomorrow will bring more time and, while it won’t be enough either, to me it just seems like too much!
Really, it’s just that I’m a morning person. I would prefer to work for four hours then sleep for six and start again. That way, I’d always be working in the morning. I would be very productive and not at all tired. Alas, my wish list leaves me always wanting.
Tags: Chores, Parenting, Time, Time Management
