The Rarity of “Mommy Time” and Who to Blame

You may have guessed that I have been having a week of overwork. This happens a lot when several part-time jobs, instead of one full-time gig, make up one’s 40 60 hour work-week. The lowlight of my week came yesterday when the day care called the language school where I teach because my daughter had developed a fever.

Reception told the day care I was unreachable. I was in a classroom down the hall and it was 15 minutes before the end of class. They didn’t even pass along a message. Once I arrived, all I knew about the situation was that there was a distinct “bad mother” vibe in the atmosphere.

Today, I decided to take a rare day off.

I don’t usually teach on Fridays, but I schedule writing and editing work, blog promotion and we attend the English language mother-baby group. Then, this morning, my son and his father started the day with an argument. My boy came out of the experience so upset that he’s “too sick to go to kindergarten.”

Hence, my decision to take the day off from everything. I am writing this blog, but mostly for my own benefit (please bear with me).

So, when my little girl was napping. I put on my favorite yoga DVD. I love doing yoga. Nothing else makes me feel as good. Nothing else relieves my physical and emotional stress to the same degree. And yet, I haven’t done yoga in almost a year. I know because I blogged it.

Throughout this 30-minute break my son whined.

“I don’t want to watch this. I don’t want to do yoga. I want to watch Little Bill and Dora.”

At one point during the Upward Dog pose, he even sat on me.

I can’t even get half-an-hour to myself after working more than 48 hours in the last 4 days, I thought.

It’s my own fault.

While I was working days and evenings; I still scheduled special time with the kids, I still took care of a few details for a volunteer commitment, I still wrote this blog, I still took late night phone calls about editing work I’ll start this weekend.

Is it any wonder my 5 year-old has the opinion that his mother’s needs for personal time and interests are unimportant?

Obviously I have to change things. I might even know where to start. I once did a personality profile test and the result said that the first thing I should do in the mornings is decide what I am not going to do.

I also think I can start using words my 5 year-old and toddler can understand. You might know this phrase too:

“It’s my turn.”