Momservation: Moms don’t need more hours in a day – we need more free labor we don’t have to cook for, clean up after, or yell at to go to bed already.
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It seems there is never enough time to get anything done. When I wake up in the morning I’m already behind schedule.
Being a mom, whether working or at home (and I can speak to this because I’ve done both), there is no such thing as the euphoria of crossing that last thing off the big “To Do List.” It is a perpetual, never ending, constantly evolving To Do List (TDL). Cross one thing off, two things have taken its place before you can lift your pencil from the page.
Some days it’s so overwhelming I just want to lie down, go to sleep and not be woken up until the last episode of “Lost” when it will all make sense. These are the days I think Sleeping Beauty had it good.
Unfortunately, we all know that these TDL things don’t go away, but actually multiply when you try to run and hide from them. I recently proved this by seeking refuge in a dark movie theatre with my comforting popcorn, Junior Mints and rootbeer.
For two hours everything seemed right with the world again – especially when you’re staring at that hunky young thing, Zac Efron. But the second the light of day pierced my eyes again, my phone started ringing, my freelance deadline had inched closer, there was still nothing cooking in my oven for dinner, my son was going to have to wear a dirty uniform to baseball, and my daughter was going to need to bum some sunscreen at swim practice from a mom who actually took care of things on her TDL instead of trying to hide from them.
In order to quell the panic of not getting to something important on the TDL, you of course have to prioritize. Every mom knows the TDL is in a constant state of fluctuation and can reshift at lightning speed. What was important in the a.m. could very well be pushed to the bottom by noon.
I have been known to scrounge up a stash of complimentary hotel shampoos because going to the store for shampoo got knocked down the priority list. I’ve also eaten spilled gummy worms from the bottom of my purse when lunch got bumped. I’ve tried to convince myself a vigorous vacuum session could replace the half-hour at the gym I had to scratch. I’ve also grudgingly moved laundry up the list when everyone ran out of clean underwear and no one took my suggestion to just flip their underwear inside out seriously.
Hey, something’s gotta give and it ain’t gonna be my sanity. In fact, I wonder when the next showing of X-Men Origins: Wolverine is. That Hugh Jackman is just so delicious…