I’ve been reading a lot of posts around the blogosphere regarding “Mommy Guilt” lately –
I suppose that’s because summer is officially under way ~ the kids are FINALLY out of school here in Minnesota –
(Man they go late around here! Compared to back home when things wrap up in mid-May – it seems like an eternity passes before kids finally get let out for the summer here! Sheesh!)
Anyway – more and more moms are heading into work, leaving their kids behind in the care of a daycare provider, a camp of some sort, or perhaps letting them hang at home alone for awhile…
Our kids aren’t school aged yet – so I don’t have that kind of guilt, but I do understand where it’s coming from. We are still at the point that our kids love love love (most of the time!) going to daycare and if I'm being honest - they are learning far more than I ever thought they would at their ages, far more if I were staying home with them! Who knew that 3 & 4 year olds could write dozens of words and do math problems?
I do however, have it made compared to so many of my mommy friends. Thanks to an understanding boss and an AWESOMESAUCE hubs…I have the luxury of a 4 day work week – affording me an extra day with my kiddos. A day to make up for what I am not the 4 days that I do have to work. Days that I come home from work tired, ornery, wanting to do ANYTHING but make dinner…But I’m also lucky in that I am home with my kiddos on those work days by late afternoon. On the rare occasions that I don’t get home until 6…bleck!
How do you guys do it?
By the time you come home, let the dog out, check the mail, make dinner, clean up dinner, clean up kids, get kids to bed...When do you have time to read books, play board games, drive tonka trucks or play polly pockets? When do you throw a few baseballs, go down a few slides or run through your sprinkler?
Then there's all that other *stuff* like vacuuming, doing the dishes, the laundry, scrubbing floors, mowing the lawn...
On those Fridays that we have together – there is no waking up to the alarm clock – though our internal body clocks make sure we start the day nice and early…We are able to grab some groceries or necessities at nearby stores…Sometimes we hit the library and read books and select a few to take home…Sometimes we meet up with our friends and do this….or we do this…
Or other Fridays we do stuff like this…
These kids have grown so. dang. faaaaaaaast.
Cliché, yes, yes, I know…but it’s true.
Next fall my baby girl is going off to kindergarten – and while I’m not sure yet if she’ll do the abbreviated version or the full day – the reality is – she won’t be with us for a part of those Fridays if not most of the day…and the following year – Buddy goes off to school too.
That means in two short years, (which incidentally will seem like two short weeks) our Friday fun days will changed for evermore.
That is why I have to live for the now. To gobble up all of the fun we can possibly have on our extra day together. Not everyone is so lucky and I totally get that.
Sometimes I think it would be better for our family if I were to change jobs and bring home a 5 day a week paycheck instead of a 4 day a week paycheck…
But Fridays with my babies?
Priceless.
And we don’t go without by any stretch of the imagination because of that one less day of paycheck I bring home…
How could I possibly give this up? To me, no amount of money would be worth giving up that day with my babies…that would leave just evenings and 2 days a week to cram it all in?
No one ever looks back and says “Gee, I sure wish I’d of worked more!” (do they? If they do – they are completely bonkers!)
But I can say with confidence that I will look back and say – “Wow – am I ever glad we went to the apple orchard and played all day that one day and to pump it up with our other friends that other day...and remember that time that we followed the yellow brick road?"
I hope that my child, looking back on today,
remembers a mother who had time to play.
Children grow up when you are not looking,
there will be years ahead for cleaning and cooking.
So hush now cobwebs, dust - go to sleep,
I'm rocking my babies cuz babies don't keep.
4 comments:
Amen! You can't get the time back....Now to remember this on those hectic days (or EVERY time the kids play in the dirt)...
That was perfect. You are so luck to have this wonderful time. I feel like kicking myself in the head every time I wanted so badly to be back at work full time. Now I am and I want so badly to be home with my girls.
It is soooooo hard. Soak it up. Soak them up. It'll all be gone before you know it!
It's something I think about every day.....
Great post, Darcie.
My mom stayed home with us and I didn't even know that other kids existed until I went to kindergarten.
It's so weird to me that my kids are "daycare kids."
Still praying for independent wealth ;)
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