And so it begins, pipes the little voice from the back seat before we had even exited our subdivision as we headed to the wading pool. In Lawrence. A good 45 minutes from here.
Anyway.....this week, I am going to attempt something extraordinary. I am going to write posts, proofread them once and only once, then hit "publish". I am an obsessive proofreader and it is not limited to posts. Oh no. It applies to emails, Tweets, text messages, and comments. Am I the only one? It is an utter timesuck, this need to proofread. Look forward to a week full of typos and bad grammar. Go me.
So, this past weekend was a wash (see? "wash" is not quite the word I am looking for, but you are now stuck with it). No celebrations, but much freaking out. Had some family stuff going on, then Anjali is cutting six teeth (SIX TEETH) that I can visibly SEE in her gum line. Not only is she crabby, but she is on a nursing strike. I have been trying to figure out the pumping schedule thingie. Furthermore, as I have always suspected, pumping does not yield nearly as much as nursing because there is no way that Anjali was living off of 3-5 oz per feeding. Fortunately, with her being so close to a year old, I have been giving her bottles of whole milk and soymilk in addition to breastmilk and her normal bits of solids. Anyway, X and I are planning on going out for our anniversary this week to one of our favorite restaurant, Lill's on 17th in Kansas City.
The other day, Rita wrote a post that really hit home for me about her misgivings being a working mother. As I told her later while on the phone, there is no "perfect". I am ever so tired of some of the humdrum that comes with staying home - I think Caro did an excellent job describing the SAHM Hamster Wheel in her recent post. Bethiclaus has said before that she is glad she talks to me Behind the Blog. Since Rancid Raves is my happy place, I do not let it all hang out but Beth has gotten a earful of my gripes over the past year or so. At times, I feel this site is a dishonest portrayal of my life. Sure, I am precisely where I want to be the vast majority of the time. But occasionally, I would rather be sneakily surfing the 'net in my cube avoiding deadlines while trying to come up with plans for lunchdates and happy hours. Do I want to go back to work? Hell no. And I hate to complain since nearly every week, I am doing something fun with the kids - like going to the pool, zoo, the park. We are rarely every sitting at home. But still. ....
Still.
9 comments:
And I work part time! I am not even a genuine SAHM!
It is useful to know that this is your 'happy place.' I feel I should make the disclaimer more often that my blog is my grumpy place. Or at least my imperfect place. At any rate, I am probably happy more often than my posts would have a person believe.
Caro, *gasp* You are a FAKE stay-at-home mom? The shame.
The shame. :-)
Thanks for the links. I think I needed to read both of them. (I already read Bethiclaus and love her.)
1. Spelling and typos...pfft, I don't care, lol. I rarely even proofread at all which is evident in my posts, hahahahahaha. What is important is that people know what you mean, IMO.
2. The teeth - oh good heavens I feel for all involved.
3. My blog(s) are the complete opposite. As a matter of fact I'm much more lively and chipper in real life. If it's your happy place it's your blog. Do whatever YOU want.
4. My ability to travel and stuff for work is precisely why Richard gets his time to travel wherever he wants while I hold down the home front. Last time he was gone for almost two weeks. Alex just went to daycare (I dropped him off and picked him up, obviously) while I was at the office. I think it was nice for both of us.
Amen on the teething sister! Caleb is getting four right now and nighttime has been a disaster lately. He tosses and turns (and kicks) all night.
I am a WOHM and I pump 3-6 times a day lately (and still have to add some from the freezer stash occasionally) to get enough for Caleb's 3 5-6 oz. bottles he gets while I'm gone. For some reason around 9 months my milk level dropped suddenly and has never come back up but he is happy with the amount I send and doesn't always finish his bottle. He weights about 22 lbs. and is 11.5 months old. I don't know if that helps you any but that's my story.
I fortunately haven't experienced a full-blown nursing strike just a lot of disinterest during the day but he is coming back around. How long did you nurse Arun? I am trying to figure out when I can "hang up the horns" and just nurse morning and evening (and ALL NIGHT). I'm afraid my milk might just dry up completely if I do that. Any advise? Everything I read just says nurse on demand. Well that is fine and dandy except I don't know the demand when I'm not with the babe! Hope your teething and nursing troubles get better soon.
I'm a chronic proofreader as well. I'd love to find some freelance proofreading work (that doesn't require me to go into anyone's office) because it's just a natural habit of mine to read the same thing several times over. I've gotten better about not doing it with the blog, especially in reducing my post-publish-button edits;>
I think it's good to try to keep things positive on the blog. I try to do the same, and clearly fail since, hello, every bad experience I've had as a parent, nice to see you again. I, too, am a fake stay-at-home mom. But I stay home way more than you. Because I'm a introvert fuddy-duddy with a daughter to match.
I WILL get out of the house. I WILL get out of the house. I WILL get out of the house.
Been there done that with the nursing strike. I'll keep my fingers crossed that it ends soon...
You very eloquently describe my exact feelings of staying at home. Though I rarely write about it on my blog because I feel terrible that other people can't make that choice. I am not ready now, nor will I be for some time, to go back to work.
But damn, I still wish I had a career.
I did want to note that NOT staying at home is not as exciting as some people think, lol. I get to travel 3 or 4 times out of the year - which is nice. However, when I'm not traveling it's get up, go to gym, go to work, eat lunch at desk, get back to work, drive home. Cook dinner, clean up kitchen, play with kid, put him to bed, do homework, do some chores. Go to bed.
(2 hours a day commute, 9-10 hours a day at the office, a couple hours left to see my family and about 6 sleeping)
The weekend roles around and its doing all the friggin' chores that can't be done during the week. Cleaning the house 100%, doing all the grocery shopping, cooking meals in advance for my lunches during the week and rarely having time to really do anything fun.
Rinse, wash and repeat.
Each side of the equation always sounds fanciful and beautiful when it gets old.
When I get to travel or take a vacation I still have to do all the stuff at home but work 50-60 hours the weeks before and after to make up for the travel time.
All in all its challenging no matter how you slice it - the challenges are just different.
There are about 2 months out of the year where we are slow enough that we can take leisurely lunches and surf the web and happy hour as been out for me ever since I became a mother. I'd have to be single and childless to get in on that.
As much as I kick myself for not moving to downtown Portland instead of Phoenix 4 years ago I wouldn't change it for the world.
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