I am one of those typical, irritating Americans who constantly complains that she is too busy. And, the truth is that I AM busier than I want to be (and, somehow, I still miss working).
There is some (large) amount of time which I gave away when I decided to get pregnant. Kids take time and I love my kids and usually I don't mind the amount of time I spend on them. I love talking with them and answering their questions and hearing about their days. I'm good at figuring out how to make time that could be construed as wasted into time that is meaningful or enjoyable to me; I listen to podcasts whenever I'm in the car and I read novels or the New Yorker while I wait for Lizzie in her gymnastics class.
I am a tiny bit resentful of the time that I spend managing the household. This statement is ridiculous as I have a lot of help with housecleaning. But I don't have help with grocery shopping or cooking or menu planning and those things end up sucking up a lot of time. I also don't have anyone else to wait for the AC repair guy, or go pay the utilities or get my car serviced.
I am off-the-charts resentful of the time I spend doing things I don't want to do at all and have somehow ended up doing. I love how I talk about this in a passive voice - because of course I committed my very own self to the activities now causing so much resentment.
Obviously, there is a reason I am giving so much thought to my time at this very moment, and you've been reading for three paragraphs to get there. Here it is: I am sitting at this computer, waiting for the last information I need before I can send out the Pony Express. What's that, you ask? It's the American Womens Group newsletter and it is killing me. I will tell you that I have absolutely and unequivocally QUIT this position as of May but there are eight newsletters between now and then and I am in charge of getting each of them out. Even when the process is smooth (70% of the time?), it bothers me that I'm almost always doing it when both of my children are at home and awake and eager for my attention.
And the other thing I resent doing that I wish I didn't do? ROOM MOM. What was I thinking? While I am grateful that I know Tommy's teacher as well as I do, I dislike organizing groups of people and even though I can bang out the necessary emails easily, I really let the not-great responses get under my skin. Tommy and Lizzie's school has what I'm sure are normal disagreements among the parents (the largest of these being any and all rules associated with teacher gifts) and I can get pretty worked up about them. Anyway, next year I will be volunteering at school but I shall not be the room mom, not for anybody's class, no matter what.
So what's the moral? Somebody needs to work on SAYING NO. Politely declining. Refusing. Drawing the line and not allowing myself to cross it.
Stay tuned.
There is some (large) amount of time which I gave away when I decided to get pregnant. Kids take time and I love my kids and usually I don't mind the amount of time I spend on them. I love talking with them and answering their questions and hearing about their days. I'm good at figuring out how to make time that could be construed as wasted into time that is meaningful or enjoyable to me; I listen to podcasts whenever I'm in the car and I read novels or the New Yorker while I wait for Lizzie in her gymnastics class.
I am a tiny bit resentful of the time that I spend managing the household. This statement is ridiculous as I have a lot of help with housecleaning. But I don't have help with grocery shopping or cooking or menu planning and those things end up sucking up a lot of time. I also don't have anyone else to wait for the AC repair guy, or go pay the utilities or get my car serviced.
I am off-the-charts resentful of the time I spend doing things I don't want to do at all and have somehow ended up doing. I love how I talk about this in a passive voice - because of course I committed my very own self to the activities now causing so much resentment.
Obviously, there is a reason I am giving so much thought to my time at this very moment, and you've been reading for three paragraphs to get there. Here it is: I am sitting at this computer, waiting for the last information I need before I can send out the Pony Express. What's that, you ask? It's the American Womens Group newsletter and it is killing me. I will tell you that I have absolutely and unequivocally QUIT this position as of May but there are eight newsletters between now and then and I am in charge of getting each of them out. Even when the process is smooth (70% of the time?), it bothers me that I'm almost always doing it when both of my children are at home and awake and eager for my attention.
And the other thing I resent doing that I wish I didn't do? ROOM MOM. What was I thinking? While I am grateful that I know Tommy's teacher as well as I do, I dislike organizing groups of people and even though I can bang out the necessary emails easily, I really let the not-great responses get under my skin. Tommy and Lizzie's school has what I'm sure are normal disagreements among the parents (the largest of these being any and all rules associated with teacher gifts) and I can get pretty worked up about them. Anyway, next year I will be volunteering at school but I shall not be the room mom, not for anybody's class, no matter what.
So what's the moral? Somebody needs to work on SAYING NO. Politely declining. Refusing. Drawing the line and not allowing myself to cross it.
Stay tuned.
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