I wanted to make the girls’ time here as simple as possible- in truth, for both them and myself. There were no grand outings; the Aquarium, Stone Mountain, Centennial Park are not going anywhere, and we will have oodles of time to explore those things once they move here permanently. It was also a fact that, as I had already taken a week off just to move, my vacation time was at a premium, so I decided to still work all week. My mother and sister graciously agreed to schedule activities with the girls during the day so that I would be free to knock out conference calls and emails.
First, I have to say that working from a home office truly is the best and the worst working environment. Sure, you get to roll out of bed, and barring any calls on Skype, can wear your favorite band t-shirt and yoga pants all day long- no makeup required. It’s also really hard because when you travel as much as I do, you are constantly packing and unpacking your office, and it’s a start and stop process that really sucks up a lot of time and productivity. The other issue is that you must maintain focus, and in saying “I will just throw in a quick load of laundry” you will inevitably end up re-decorating the entire family room. On the flip side, it’s also really hard to turn it off; you say you will just answer a few emails, and before you know it you can hear Conan doing his monologue.
And all of that is without putting kids into the equation.
So back to Spring Break…. You know….. With the best laid plans….
There was one afternoon where the girls found themselves in a window of time that was after lunch but before any of the neighborhood kids were home from school. Belle had a project due shortly after the break where she had to make a model of an endangered animal. No problem, I thought… I had a block of time that was free, they needed the supervision and heck, I can spend a little mid-day quality time with my daughter… because you know, I can do it all. At the same time. Right?
So there we are, newspaper strips and Paper Mache’ all ready to go to magically transform a 2 liter bottle taped up with Dixie cups and electrical tape into a ring-tailed lemur (which she picked because it happens to be my favorite animal- how sweet is that???). I look at the clock. I have 45 minutes until my next call. I can do this I tell myself. So we dive in and are literally up to our elbows in the mucky flour / water mixture and the phone rings. It’s a call that I have to take- now. I answer, and with the phone on my shoulder try to wash the goop off my hands while acting all professional. I start to juggle the conversation “Yes, I do think that switching up the structure of the team like that will strategically align for best business results and prove profitable by Q4”. All the while I see that the Paper Mache project is quickly unraveling… (Mute phone) “Belle, that is WAY too much Paper Mache’, sweetie! It will take 3 days to dry… Wait! No! Don’t take it all off!” Too late, and she swipes all the newspaper strips off the lemur body in frustration and says “It looks like a pig, mommy- not a lemur!” Sigh… OK. I’ve got this. (Un-mute phone) “Sure, I can get revised org charts over to you by end of day. You want three different versions? No problem…” (Mute phone) “OK, Belle, we can fix that- besides, maybe it’s a new breed of animal called a pig-lemur….” (It can happen, right?)
Whew. So I know that typically my girls will not be here during a normal work day, but man, it was like walking a tightrope. Over a pit of fire-eating alligators. Who are very cranky. You have to stay straight, on point, focus on what you were doing at exactly that moment, or else you would lose your balance and then it all comes tumbling down. It made me really think- is this how it’s going to be as a single mom? All the time? Am I going to feel like I am walking on the tight rope forever?
I hope not, but I have to tell you, I can already hear the circus music in the background…..
No comments:
Post a Comment