ms. bing
05-26-2004, 11:21 PM
i may have posted something to this effect before. if so, allow me to reiterate.
during this break from school circumstances and finances have allowed me the luxury of staying home with my daughter more than i have since i first moved here, when she was 5 months old. i have enjoyed myself greatly. even the chores are not a chore, because i have plenty of time in which to get everything done. it's much better now that she is older, because she is more self reliant and even able to help with things like drying and putting away dishes, picking up toys, etc. if i do want to go do something, like go to the store or spend the afternoon with a friend, i can just take her with me. she is old enough to stay amused and be amusing. even now that i'm working again, the nature of my job allows me to choose mornings or even whole days home with her, and life has taken a leisurely pace.
the problem is i know that school will begin again in less than two weeks, and we will be back to life in a time crunch. we will have to leave the house by 7:30am in order to get her to daycare and me to school on time, and on the days when i work i will not get home until between 6:30 and 7:30pm. then i will feed her, bathe her and put her to bed, do my homework and put myself to bed. the house will go uncleaned until the weekends, at which time that will be all i get to do and there will be little time for play.
this hurts me. its not so bad for her, she's used to it. this is how it has been her whole life. i went back to work when she was 8 weeks old. i spent a couple months home with her when we first moved back to texas, then it was back to school and she was back in daycare. she knows the routine and handles it very well. she makes her own time for play, and i can't complain because i am fortunate enough to have a child i do not have to worry about. but i wish i had the luxury all the time of staying home with her. we're weaning and potty training, and she's doing very well on both counts. her vocabulary is growing and she is changing every day before my eyes. she is becoming more sensitive and aware of abstract ideas such as monsters in the closet and playing pretend. we cook rocks on her toy kitchen set and call them macaronis. we make birthday cakes from mud. we giggle. i'm going to miss that.
why do so many women on various forms of media whine about being stuck home all day with the kids and not getting any help? i would love to be stuck home all day with the kids, and i would need very little in the way of help. in fact, i would be grateful to have that time alone with my child to do things my way and get things done at my pace. i know kids always have their own schedules and agendas. that's the way they are. that's also where i think discipline plays a large part in their lives. sometimes they have to do things at your pace. but the reward always lies around the corner. once dishes are cleaned and put away, there are more spoons for making mud cakes with! when i see a woman on daytime tv, (the dr. phil show is on during naptime) whining about how she is stuck home all day with the kids and she would love to be able to leave every morning and not have to worry about household things until the evening, i just want to grab the silly witch and pinch her head off. she has no idea what she has. i would love to trade places with her for a month. maybe i'm anti-feminism, maybe i'm still in the honeymoon stage, but to be able to stay home, even living on a modest one-person income (the most, by the way, i can ever hope for anyway), would be heaven to me. and dinner and dessert would be awaiting the person who provided for my family and allowed me to do that every day. just ask my dad. who is, by the way, having chicken alfredo and crumb cake tonight.
during this break from school circumstances and finances have allowed me the luxury of staying home with my daughter more than i have since i first moved here, when she was 5 months old. i have enjoyed myself greatly. even the chores are not a chore, because i have plenty of time in which to get everything done. it's much better now that she is older, because she is more self reliant and even able to help with things like drying and putting away dishes, picking up toys, etc. if i do want to go do something, like go to the store or spend the afternoon with a friend, i can just take her with me. she is old enough to stay amused and be amusing. even now that i'm working again, the nature of my job allows me to choose mornings or even whole days home with her, and life has taken a leisurely pace.
the problem is i know that school will begin again in less than two weeks, and we will be back to life in a time crunch. we will have to leave the house by 7:30am in order to get her to daycare and me to school on time, and on the days when i work i will not get home until between 6:30 and 7:30pm. then i will feed her, bathe her and put her to bed, do my homework and put myself to bed. the house will go uncleaned until the weekends, at which time that will be all i get to do and there will be little time for play.
this hurts me. its not so bad for her, she's used to it. this is how it has been her whole life. i went back to work when she was 8 weeks old. i spent a couple months home with her when we first moved back to texas, then it was back to school and she was back in daycare. she knows the routine and handles it very well. she makes her own time for play, and i can't complain because i am fortunate enough to have a child i do not have to worry about. but i wish i had the luxury all the time of staying home with her. we're weaning and potty training, and she's doing very well on both counts. her vocabulary is growing and she is changing every day before my eyes. she is becoming more sensitive and aware of abstract ideas such as monsters in the closet and playing pretend. we cook rocks on her toy kitchen set and call them macaronis. we make birthday cakes from mud. we giggle. i'm going to miss that.
why do so many women on various forms of media whine about being stuck home all day with the kids and not getting any help? i would love to be stuck home all day with the kids, and i would need very little in the way of help. in fact, i would be grateful to have that time alone with my child to do things my way and get things done at my pace. i know kids always have their own schedules and agendas. that's the way they are. that's also where i think discipline plays a large part in their lives. sometimes they have to do things at your pace. but the reward always lies around the corner. once dishes are cleaned and put away, there are more spoons for making mud cakes with! when i see a woman on daytime tv, (the dr. phil show is on during naptime) whining about how she is stuck home all day with the kids and she would love to be able to leave every morning and not have to worry about household things until the evening, i just want to grab the silly witch and pinch her head off. she has no idea what she has. i would love to trade places with her for a month. maybe i'm anti-feminism, maybe i'm still in the honeymoon stage, but to be able to stay home, even living on a modest one-person income (the most, by the way, i can ever hope for anyway), would be heaven to me. and dinner and dessert would be awaiting the person who provided for my family and allowed me to do that every day. just ask my dad. who is, by the way, having chicken alfredo and crumb cake tonight.