I've found a mommy who knows my heart at Strong Coffee. I wish I'd written her post from a few days back. It's precisely what I have been thinking lately -- what I wish I could embrace fully and stop pouting about -- on being a working mom at home. Here are excerpts. Go read her. She's smart.
She says, that when you're working at home, with all its interruptions and distractions (i.e., the kids themselves):
Play with them, read to them, walk with them, take them on picnics. Be the mom, don't sweat the deadlines (much). Then, during a lull in the day or when one or more are napping, set up some down time for them and work for a bit. Sit wherever they are in a comfy chair with a lap desk and work while they drive trains and cars along your arms and legs, happy just for the security and warmth of your presence. They will survive...
Ask [the husband] to take over both dinner and clean-up so I can work. Both of those chores are normally my province, since he's outside of the home busting his hump for 10+ hours/day. But he understands deadlines and knows how much work I have. "No problem" is his reply.
(It's funny, Toni, that my husband is always willing to do the cooking and clean-up, too... and yet I rarely ask him to.)
Weather the interruptions gracefully not grumpily.
Get up early when I can, before the kids. Work late if I have to. Never forget that they will only be this tiny and needful for the blink of an eye. Remember to give thanks for all I do have when I'm scared I'm not going to make it or worrying over all I don't.
What a lovely reminder to be grateful. Especially for the time I have with AJ. To this wise advice, I can only add:
When it's naptime, and he crawls up into the crook of your neck, closes his eyes, and listens to you hum, stay there just one extra moment before putting him down and closing the door. The work can wait.
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