I have had to deal with two consecutive weeks of different spring breaks. The kids have been juggled and ignored. Work has been juggled and ignored. House cleaning, cooking, food shopping (no bread or juice), and blogging have suffered.
Today, plans include dragging Ian to the gym with me and to the supermarket. I would like to pay attention to the garden, while making sure that Ian doesn't run in traffic. Somehow I will have to grade 30 papers on the state of nature. Maybe I will grade while playing Sorry Sliders with Ian.
Multi-tasking sucks. I am so done with multi-tasking. I'm frazzled. I'm waking up at 5 in the morning with a sick feeling that I have forgotten something.
Apt. 11d 
I’ve had a similarly tough week, though my kids weren’t on vacation. It was just meetings^infinity and whiny students. But it makes a huge (negative) difference when I don’t get home till 5:30. The kids are so much more needy, and when I don’t make dinner, my husband gets upset with me. I tell him to get over it and cook for himself if he doesn’t want PB sandwiches, but sometimes the effort of having to tell him that is just too much effort. Then he gets mad at me for not communicating. 🙂
My kids are off next week, but my husband is staying home with them Monday (Patriot’s Day here in Massachusetts) and then they go to the vacation-week program offered by the usual after-school program 3 days. Then the 3 of us are home on Friday. Methinks that would be a good day to go see the Hannah Montana movie. Or 17 Again. Which one will suck least? I’m thinking the Matthew Perry factor makes 17A a better bet.
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Just this morning I was wondering why I’m feeling like this, too (i.e. overloaded, over-committed, too much multi-tasking). Next Saturday (tomorrow) I managed to schedule 5 competing commitments for members of our family. With the help of grandparents, we’re planning on doing 2.
I know one of my problems is that I’m terrible at multi-tasking. Always have been, and still am. Kids way increase the multi-tasking demands, because you’re responsible for people other than yourself. My mom once interpreted a scientific result for me — more cross-brain connections in women as potentially explaining the fact that moms can pay attention to their children *and* something else, while men seem incapable.
But, the other possibility is that we’re really trying to do too much, and you just have to give up something if you don’t want to feel this way.
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But what do you give up? Having a birthday cake for your kid? Running to mall to pick up black pants for one kid’s school play that they’ve given you one day to purchase? Grading papers? Showering?
It’s the list making that’s killing me now. I can tell Steve to go to the store to pick up the cake. But it was me who planned the day for school party, bought the invitations, wrote out the invitations, picked out the optimal day, kept track of the RSVPs, worried because only two people responded, called the parents of the other kids, figured out goodie bags, bought the supplies, filled them, called Chuck E Cheese, paid the balance, and that was just one thing on my list this week.
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“Running to mall to pick up black pants for one kid’s school play that they’ve given you one day to purchase?”
That is so not OK on the school’s part.
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“Showering? ”
*raises hand* Well, for this week.
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I repeat like a mantra: I am doing the best i can… If my kids get in bed in one piece, and i am still married at the end of the day, it was a good day. The rest is gravy.
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“kept track of the RSVPs, worried because only two people responded”
Does anyone else put his/her e-mail address on birthday party invites? I started doing that. Didn’t work with one kid, but worked pretty well with the others.
Not doing parties this year. I think.
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“But what do you give up?”
Oh yeah, I totally get it. I simply cannot give up showering. I do sometimes give up eating (even though that’s not good for anyone). I think there are other things we have to think seriously about what we want to prioritize on. We’ve managed to “forget” to have parties for both our kids this year. I feel bad, occasionally, but not bad enough to do something about it.
(Wendy, I got to say, “your husband gets mad at you if you don’t make dinner?” Eeks, that’s one of the first expectations I gave up, but, I guess, see the “give up eating” above).
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BTW, I’ve managed to get 4/5 commitments on now, with creative scheduling. Still bumming about the 5th one, though which just goes to show that we’re often crazy.
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bj, it’s not as bad as it sounds. 🙂
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“Put another log on the fire…”
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I’ve was there last week, too:
Scene from my working weekend, in which I try to supervise five students on a forest ecology research project, with kid in tow, and kid persistently attempts to draw my attention:
Kid: Can I sit in the car and use your laptop?
Me: Not now. It’s a nice day. Why don’t you go play on the rocks near the brook?
Kid wanders off. Mom returns to work
Kid: Ugh! I stepped in the brook. Now I am all wet.
Me: Oh well
Kid: Why did you tell me to play there when you knew that would happen?
Me: Because I cannot do my ecology job and be a good parent at the same time, and your father is taking an out of town visitor to the opera today.
Kid: Can I go back to the car and use your lap top?
Me: I guess you can do that now, for a little while.
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