A Good Day
Reese slept in until 8:45 this morning. When she sleeps in late I KNOW I’m in for a good day. It’s weird but with Reese sleep always begets more sleep. When she wakes up at 6:30am I know all of her naps for the day will be shorter and she will be on the cranky side. But what bliss it is on mornings like today to wake up at 8:45 and wander past Reese’s room where she is still snoozing away and know that today is going to be a good day.
I needed a good, productive day at home today. A couple of weeks ago I wrote about all the projects I’ve been taking on. I spent awhile feeling truly amazed that I was surviving with all of these things on my plate. I just made it work and I was having a great time. It felt good to be Supermom. Then last week, it all came crashing down.
Last week I had two days 8:30am-6:30pm babysitting jobs. This is not normal for me. Add that to my 5 days a week training at the gym, a photo session last week and tons of photos to edit, and 750 SmugMug camera straps to stuff and stamp and mail out to our anxious customers by Monday, and my normal 12 hours a week working on my computer from home.
Yeah. Last week was a bad week. I was exhausted. My workouts were not good. Our house was a disaster and I couldn’t muster the energy to care. Reese had a couple of her bad sleep days. It was humbling. It made me realize that I’m not Supermom, right now I will settle for being a good mom. Last week I didn’t feel like all that good a mom.
I think something is going to have to give. It’s probably going to be babysitting. I have been babysitting for 13 years. I think the time has come to give it up. I want to just take care of my own kids now. Besides, I’m too excited about the other things in my life right now to give anything else up.
So the time has come to just learn how to say “no”. Why is that so hard for me?!
Because you are a woman and women have a hard time saying no. We want to please everyone and saying no means you have to displease someone. It’s something you will have to practice. Stand in front of a mirror and say, “NO, NO, NO. Sorry, but No. I don’t have the time, energy, interest, desire” (pick one). The more you practice it the easier it becomes. This is all about taking care of you and yours.
And yes, I think it is time to give up the babysitting. When you have your own kid(s) suddenly it is not so fun any more. Save your babysitting energy for when you want to trade babysitting with someone else with kids so you can have some “me” time.
I liked this post. You should totally give up babysitting and just focus on Reese and the other stuff you mentioned.
I couldn’t agree more with having amazingly awesome weeks and weeks that I feel like I keep trying to “catch up” and don’t get *anywhere*… The kiddos really dictate your life these days, huh? :) It’s wonderfully wonderful, but also truly humbling, as you said. :)
What are you doing this week? We should get together for lunch!!
That’s hard because babysitting is sorta your out. I coached gymnastics for SOOO long and when i finally quit working right before Quincy was born, it was very bittersweet. At least the good thing about babysitting is it is not a rigid work schedule. Sometimes you can say no, sometimes you can say yes. I do wish I had somethin like that.