This has been... weird.
I really like what I am doing (so strange to not be the one to set the schedule, but I get it).
But.
A house with 4 kids and 2 full-time parents working actual business hours? SUCKS.
I am both so thankful that my real life is flexible and also so angry that so many people navigate this family-unfriendly reality everyday.
If this were our real life, we would have more routine childcare, which would help for sure. We would also be used to it, of course. And at the ages our kids are now, everything from Sept-May would be easier because they would be in school all day anyway. But! I would not be able to volunteer in the classroom every week, or pop over with things they forgot, or keep the house tidy and the food homemade. Ben and I would never see each other, except maybe a nod over laundry or on the way out the door to some practice or another. Field trips would be a luxury, etc etc etc. Why have we as a culture decided this is an OK way to live?
My life has gotten much harder and busier since Ben started working in a less flexible job, but without my own flexibility? I don't know how we would keep our heads above water on a regular basis.
Here's a metaphor or the week, courtesy of the babysitter who wanted a clementine from the fruit bowl on my kitchen counter and now will probably never eat them again:
TGIF.
Thank you for acknowledging this. As a full time working mom who travels fairly frequently and whose husband works part time, I know how lucky I am, but it is largely because I didn't have my kids until 40. We can afford to outsource a lot and have one of us home part time. I have so much sympathy and angst for younger couples without that option.
ReplyDelete