Change is good...unless it's bad
On Monday my life will change in a dramatic and drastic way.
On Monday I will send my three big helpers off to school at the crack of dawn and face the rest of the day alone with two young children.
I know I've done this before; this whole stay home with little kids thing. The problem is, I can't remember what it was like.
Couple this with the fact that I am growing rounder, slower, and more tired by the minute these days, and I'm sure I'm going to face an extreme lowering of standards in terms of what gets accomplished each day. It should be interesting. I mean, who is going to clean the breakfast dishes? Or rotate laundry when the garage feels too far away? Or who will get toys down for the little girls or read them a story while I finish working on my Young Women lesson? What about the grocery shopping and the doctor visits...do they have to go too, now? I am a little nervous. I remember in the old days I had a lot of friends with young children and we swapped babysitting for each other during the week so some of those errands that are best done child-less could be accomplished. I don't really have any friends with kids at home. And frankly, I have started to really dislike watching other people's children. (Side note here - in talking with some other moms in the stake who are all done bearing children, they said they ALL felt like that once they got to the end of their child-bearing years. Isn't that interesting? I thought I was just a selfish jerk. At least if I am, I'm in good company.)
I mentioned the bringing of children to doctor visits when I was at my last OB appointment. My midwife (she's also a nurse practitioner) said, "Oh good, I'd love to see them". Ha.
On the flip side, the little girls and I have been making quiet plans to occupy our time while the older kids are at school, like story-reading, cake-baking, tea parties, reading lessons, and walks in the Gardens. Without having to focus so much on making sure more intensive schoolwork is done with the older kids, I'm hoping we can slow down and enjoy our days together. At least until this baby comes, which is a change I'm not quite ready to anticipate yet.
On Monday I will send my three big helpers off to school at the crack of dawn and face the rest of the day alone with two young children.
I know I've done this before; this whole stay home with little kids thing. The problem is, I can't remember what it was like.
Couple this with the fact that I am growing rounder, slower, and more tired by the minute these days, and I'm sure I'm going to face an extreme lowering of standards in terms of what gets accomplished each day. It should be interesting. I mean, who is going to clean the breakfast dishes? Or rotate laundry when the garage feels too far away? Or who will get toys down for the little girls or read them a story while I finish working on my Young Women lesson? What about the grocery shopping and the doctor visits...do they have to go too, now? I am a little nervous. I remember in the old days I had a lot of friends with young children and we swapped babysitting for each other during the week so some of those errands that are best done child-less could be accomplished. I don't really have any friends with kids at home. And frankly, I have started to really dislike watching other people's children. (Side note here - in talking with some other moms in the stake who are all done bearing children, they said they ALL felt like that once they got to the end of their child-bearing years. Isn't that interesting? I thought I was just a selfish jerk. At least if I am, I'm in good company.)
I mentioned the bringing of children to doctor visits when I was at my last OB appointment. My midwife (she's also a nurse practitioner) said, "Oh good, I'd love to see them". Ha.
On the flip side, the little girls and I have been making quiet plans to occupy our time while the older kids are at school, like story-reading, cake-baking, tea parties, reading lessons, and walks in the Gardens. Without having to focus so much on making sure more intensive schoolwork is done with the older kids, I'm hoping we can slow down and enjoy our days together. At least until this baby comes, which is a change I'm not quite ready to anticipate yet.
The jealous part of me is smiling to myself. Mwahahaha. You get to live like I do. :-) I took all 4 kids to the Dr's office with me just this week. Not.Cool.At.All. Then they all did a swift grocery store stop with me on the way home. At dinner time rush-hour. I'm still exhausted remembering it! Wish I could help you out though.
ReplyDeleteSince you admitted it first, I'm going to go ahead and say that (for the most part) I don't like watching other peoples' kids either... though, YOURS would definitely be the exception. ;) And, I'm kind of with Heather on this one... I'm usually so jealous of all your older helpers and now we'll be in the same boat. I guess misery loves company! Ha... just kidding, of course... life with three under four is never miserable... haha! But, really, I wish there wasn't a mountain separating us and we could be playdate buddies!
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