back to work after not working in the Summer for like 100 years now.
You can read that whole post about me goling back to work and stuff here if you want.
Okay, maybe not quite that long, but I have never worked over the Summer since having kids.
Almost 10 years... 100 years... same thing.
Practically.
Anyway.
I'm going to be honest, this Summer has been a little off... as in just not a typical Summer for us.
Not all bad, I don't mean that... just different and it feels a little "off" for me anyway.
If you want to know the truth, it has been a little difficult to not be in control of the kid's days and how they are spending them,
or not spending them.
I don't consider myself a controlling, planning, scheduling kinda person at all but this has still been a little hard for me.
There are things I want the kids doing and things I don't want them doing... you know.
And I can have guidelines, give ideas, have things available for them to do... but still.
It's different.
I'm not there all day.
I can't say; enough of this, more of that, let's try this, let's make something, let's start on this project, etc.
If you're anything like me, you have a picture in your head of how things will go-- the first day of school, vacations, Summer vacation, etc.
I do not want or expect things to be magical or perfect, I'm not that mom, but I have definitely had
to let go of my plans for the Summer and deal with the reality of how it is instead.
And I should add here that it's not all bad, not at all... sometimes I am just dramatic and whiny.
My work days are not long and I am home more than I am not home.
It's been an adjustment though for sure.
This Summer has not really been typical all the way around though.
We have had a lot of rain and unseasonably cool weather(upper 70's all this week? Sat what?!), which means less pool time
which just makes it feel like even less than a "typical Summer".
It's gotten down into the lower 60's overnight many nights in a row now... it's so weird.
And it's beautiful weather, but feels a little too much like Fall for mid-July.
In the end it will all work out, I know this.
And a lot of it is ME(yes, me) letting go of how I thought this Summer would be, how I thought it
would look and feel for us.
And sometimes it's really hard to let go of those expectations, huh?
Someone please tell me I am not alone here.
You do thos too sometimes... Right?
Sometimes this Mama is a slooooow learner, but I'll get there.
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This post pretty much sums up my life as a working mom. I want my kids to spend their time a certain way, doing (and not doing as you rightly said) certain things. It is not that I have lists and activities planned around the clock, it is just a general vibe, way of life, if you know what I mean. But then, last week for example I was home in the afternoon and my daughter was invited to a friend's house and when she came back she told me she had watched a movie (uh, movie at a 2-hour play date in the summer? Already not my thing) that was NOT AT ALL appropriate for an 8 yr old. Yet I wasn't at work, so that made me think. We can't control what happens to our kids, whether we work or not. We certainly have more control if we are with them most of the time, but they socialize and will want to spend more and more time with their friends and outside the house, so I have to learn to let go and not feel bad about not being there as much as I would like too. But she ain't going to that kid's house anymore, he he ;o))
ReplyDeleteI do this sort of thing ALL the time. For example, for the last two years we have been late...yes LATE to the first day of school. Not good. It stresses my kids out, it isn't starting things off on the right foot. The way that I imagine the first day going, special breakfast, something to take to the teachers, time for pictures...just doesn't go as planned. Message from the universe to Vicki----let stuff go. Two years in a row now...maybe thirds the charm and I will actually get it this time! Wish me luch!
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