What's New with You?
Being a parent is about prioritizing. I have to be a parent first, and let the things I want to do slide until I have free time. I’d love to spend ten solid hours a day playing on the Internet, but I have to take care of my kids. Due to meals, snacks, and the never-ending investigations of who’s crying now, I have to suffer through several short Internet sessions that total daily eight hours at best. Worse, chores cut into my free time, chores like cleaning the dishes and figuring out why the Internet isn’t working.
Such was the case last night when I missed a post. I try to write something every day, even if it’s just to write “no time to write today.” I’m learning to cram my chores A day of shuttling children to and from appointments left me shockingly behind on my chores at the end of the day.
I prefer to do chores while the kids are awake. Their naptime is my time to do what I want, such as nap or play on the Internet. It would be easier to work while the kids sleep, and more efficient since I wouldn’t have to take frequent breaks to pull someone from the oven. If I want to have any time for myself,* though, I have to work while the kids play. My parental oversight may suffer while I work, but it helps me keep an eye on them that they’re frequently playing in the dishwasher.
I didn’t have much chance to work while the kids were awake yesterday, though. We spent too much of their wake time outside the house, and by the time everyone else went to bed, I still had work to do. The dishes still needed washed. The trash needed carried out. The fish tank needed work. The kids’ screaming needed investigating.
The dishes always need washed and the kids are always screaming, so sacrificing free time for those is nothing unusual. The trash was more daunting than normal, though. A weekend of cleaning the garage left a pile of unwanted items in our living room. We had to sort things into piles of “keep,” “trash,” and “donate,” and then divide the “donate” pile into “donate,” “too embarrassingly filthy to donate,” and “it works, but they won’t accept it.”** With this morning being trash day, I had to shove everything into appropriate containers, affix the appropriate “extra bag” stickers to the extra bags, and haul everything plus the usual recycling bins to the appropriate bare patch of lawn by the curb. When I was their age, trash day was simple.
I walked back into the house exhausted and ready for bed. Unfortunately the aquarium needed my attention. We ordered a new stand to replace the one wrecked by water damage at our old home, and were waiting for it to arrive before setting up the tank again. It took three months for the magic elves to craft the wood and plastic before shipping to a store five miles away from us. It arrived today, and I wasn’t about to wait any longer before restarting the nitrogen cycle, so I stayed up late. I poured gravel into it. I poured 60-gallons of water into it five-gallons at a time. I turned on the filter. I wondered why the filter was making so much noise. I decided to ignore the filter until morning.
It was well past my bedtime by now. I stumbled to the bedroom and collapsed into bed. I fell asleep quickly, grateful that I wouldn’t have to tend to anyone until morning.
Around 4am, I had to wake up to let the cat out of the room.
* I do.
** Tip for the day: You can’t give away an air filter or microwave.
Such was the case last night when I missed a post. I try to write something every day, even if it’s just to write “no time to write today.” I’m learning to cram my chores A day of shuttling children to and from appointments left me shockingly behind on my chores at the end of the day.
I prefer to do chores while the kids are awake. Their naptime is my time to do what I want, such as nap or play on the Internet. It would be easier to work while the kids sleep, and more efficient since I wouldn’t have to take frequent breaks to pull someone from the oven. If I want to have any time for myself,* though, I have to work while the kids play. My parental oversight may suffer while I work, but it helps me keep an eye on them that they’re frequently playing in the dishwasher.
I didn’t have much chance to work while the kids were awake yesterday, though. We spent too much of their wake time outside the house, and by the time everyone else went to bed, I still had work to do. The dishes still needed washed. The trash needed carried out. The fish tank needed work. The kids’ screaming needed investigating.
The dishes always need washed and the kids are always screaming, so sacrificing free time for those is nothing unusual. The trash was more daunting than normal, though. A weekend of cleaning the garage left a pile of unwanted items in our living room. We had to sort things into piles of “keep,” “trash,” and “donate,” and then divide the “donate” pile into “donate,” “too embarrassingly filthy to donate,” and “it works, but they won’t accept it.”** With this morning being trash day, I had to shove everything into appropriate containers, affix the appropriate “extra bag” stickers to the extra bags, and haul everything plus the usual recycling bins to the appropriate bare patch of lawn by the curb. When I was their age, trash day was simple.
I walked back into the house exhausted and ready for bed. Unfortunately the aquarium needed my attention. We ordered a new stand to replace the one wrecked by water damage at our old home, and were waiting for it to arrive before setting up the tank again. It took three months for the magic elves to craft the wood and plastic before shipping to a store five miles away from us. It arrived today, and I wasn’t about to wait any longer before restarting the nitrogen cycle, so I stayed up late. I poured gravel into it. I poured 60-gallons of water into it five-gallons at a time. I turned on the filter. I wondered why the filter was making so much noise. I decided to ignore the filter until morning.
It was well past my bedtime by now. I stumbled to the bedroom and collapsed into bed. I fell asleep quickly, grateful that I wouldn’t have to tend to anyone until morning.
Around 4am, I had to wake up to let the cat out of the room.
* I do.
** Tip for the day: You can’t give away an air filter or microwave.
posted by Matt at
11:51 PM
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