Please use the buttons over on the
right to navigate my blog.
www.flickr.com
This is a Flickr badge showing photos in a set called New Zealand. Make your own badge here.
<
?
blog-girls
#
>
Thursday, February 09, 2006
During the holidays, we went out for a coffee which arrived in a big bowl. "Looks like soup," remarked Sproglet A, "Coffee - soup," he laughed. I told him I had a friend with a blog called just that, Coffesoup. Michele, over at C.S. hasn't posted since Christmas but I thought I'd pop by in case she was back online and lo and behold, a post. And one that really struck a chord with me is the one I've linked to, above.
Whilst reading that post I was nodding away to myself. "A-ha. A-ha. Yep. A-ha," because I always feel that I'll embarrass The Hubster at a Works Do, due to me being a stay-at-home-mum. It's all fine until someone asks, "And what do you do?" to which their eyes glaze over when you say you haven't worked for 10 years. What the fuck is that about? Why do I say that? I mean, I work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and don't get a day off. Can't phone in sick... if you're sick, tough. Gotta get the children to school. There has been the odd day - when the gastric flu has made its presence felt - The Hubster has had to have a day off to look after them. That's the only way it can work in our household. As yet I haven't worked out a way to change gears in the car whilst every aperture emits some foul liquid mess. It's even worse when they are sick at the same time as me. That's just plain cruel.
Due to always buggering off and travelling, we have no family nor long term friends to look after them. My children are with me constantly. ('Cept for when they're at school of course. Don't take it literally, but you get the drift, don't you?) Sure, we have been able to get a friend to babysit on occasion and we always return the favour, but it is bloody hard. Yes, being a mum does sometimes make me feel like my brain is turning to mush as my children are still young. Sometimes I think I'd really like a job just for the break it would give me. And if it wasn't just Dora the Explorer and Steve and Blue that saw me daily, I would maybe make more effort with clothes and hair and waistline... but they don't care, so I don't waste my time.
However, in the 10 yrs that I 'haven't worked', I have come to realise that a big part of why I am tired and overweight, is because I am unselfish. When The Hubster worked overseas and only Sproglet A and I lived together, he would be asleep by 7pm and the rest of the evening was my own. I wrote letters to The Hubster (no computer, shock, horror), did cross-stitches, worked out and watched a couple of programmes I really was interested in. Well I couldn't go out in the evenings so I had to find something to do!
Now, out of the four mornings I have free whilst Sproglet B is in Kindy, I spend one morning food shopping, one morning cleaning, one morning catching up with emails/writing a shopping list/sorting paperwork and bills and the fourth morning doing all the bits I didn't have time to do in the first three mornings as I ran out of time. My afternoons are spent with Sproglet B, then later Sproglet A and homework, cooking tea for them, getting them ready for bed, cooking for The Hubster and I and finishing laundry that was started during the day. I am truly blessed here in NZ as our rental home has a dishwasher! Bit small though and not everything fits in it, so I still have to wash by hand, although The Hubster is very helpful in that department. By 9pm it's done and I sit to watch TV or chat with The Hubster. I find I am doing so much stuff for other people that I don't have time to look after myself, but I don't know how to be selfish. I'm an only child and the only way an only child makes friends is by sharing and giving and that seems to have moved onto the big, wide world with me.
So it really annoys me when people think I'm overweight because I don't do anything all day... in fact, it's the exact opposite. I am so busy that I don't have time to sit down to breakfast, rarely do I sit and eat lunch so that by the time I'm cooking for the children, I will eat anything that's in sight before cooking dinner for The Hubster and I later on in the evening. So in the next few weeks, I think I might have to aim to be a bit more selfish and try and reclaim some time for me. I'll let you know how I get on. In the meantime, if you could just spare a few thoughts for the chubbies amongst you... it's not that we're all too lazy to take care of ourselves, it's that we're too busy to take time out to care for ourselves.
Sorry for the ultra long post.
right to navigate my blog.
www.flickr.com
This is a Flickr badge showing photos in a set called New Zealand. Make your own badge here.
<
?
blog-girls
#
>
Laurice Solomon
picture from
Getty Images
edited using Adobe Photoshop CS2
Home
+
Blog
+ About
+
Blogroll
Urban Gypsy
30-odd year old mum of two
England - Saudi Arabia - New Zealand
words__
When you run so fast to get somewhere
you miss the fun
of getting there.
Life is not a race,
so take it slower,
hear the music before the music is over, take your time and stay happy...
wishes for__
`new house (in Oz)
`less housework
`new shoes
`less bills
`new knickers
`smooth, tanned, glowing skin
`digital camera
`an iPod nano