I never realized how much I took time for granted until I had kids (and really, multiple children – looking back, one seems like a piece of cake!) These days I sometimes hear someone talk about their weekend, how they “puttered around in the yard” and took a nap. Or sometimes I’ll hear college students complain that they are bored. These types of comments start a subtle twitch near my eye. Words like bored and nap (unless referring to a child’s nap) left my vocabulary 4 years ago.
Now there is never enough time. Not enough time to sleep, not enough time to clean the house or put away laundry. Not enough time to cook real food or play with my children. Everything I do is done quickly and usually half-assed because there isn’t time for more. This past weekend is a perfect example of what our lives are like:
Friday night – Zach played golf with some friends from work. Sara took the boys home, fed them dinner, bathed and put them to bed. No time for playing or enjoying children, just time to get the bare necessities done. Then a little time for folding laundry.
Saturday – We are all up by 7am. We shower and get the kids dressed and fed and leave the house by 10am. We have to stop at a friend’s house because Zach forgot his laptop and keys in the car when he was dropped off after golf the previous evening. Then we rush south to the nephew’s baseball game. We are 15 minutes late (as usual). We move from the baseball game to the niece’s softball game. This one is slightly more stressful with Parker because there is a dirt road behind the dugout with a slow but steady stream of traffic, and Parker thinks that running into the road is the best game ever. After the softball game we grab some lunch with the family. Then we pop into Lowe’s for a housewarming present, and head to a housewarming party (both kids crash in the car, which is a relief). We stay at the party for several hours until Parker starts with the ear piercing screaming. Zach and I have gotten used to it (the hearing loss helps I think) but we didn’t want to subject the rest of the crowd to his noise. We got home in time for me to jump in the shower to rinse 8 hours of sweat (it was sooo very hot and humid that day) and dirt off before a friend arrived to bring me to a bachelorette party. I arrived back home at 2:30 am. My sweet husband let me sleep until 9:30 the next day, then we rushed to feed the kids brunch before heading out the door for a birthday party. We arrived home Sunday night at 8:30 pm.
The piles of laundry and dishes and general house tidiness that I ignored last weekend are shameful. The lawn is ridiculously shaggy. The litter box has been ignored for far too long. The list goes on and on. Children are a choice. Zach and I chose this lifestyle and 80% of the time I am completely satisfied with it. However, when I hear about spontaneous vacations, naps on lazy afternoons, boredom, and a thousand other things that I no longer have now, that ugly green jealousy monster rears it head. There is just never enough time…
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As I think some of our good friends could attest to, kids at Parker’s age are on the verge of finally talking. They want to talk. They know what they want to say, but they just can’t find the words to communicate with the world. And that is indescribably frustrating. Parker takes this frustration out on the wrong toy you hand him when he flings it to the ground, or flinging himself to the ground when you just won’t do what he wants you to do.