oops-a-daisy girl: On My Own

Saturday, May 9, 2009

On My Own

My-oh-my, I’m parenting on my own this week. I don’t know how single parents do it. I chuckle when I see TV shows about women who are ready to become a mother, and decide to go ahead and do it on their own. Or the single starlets who actually ARE doing it on their own. I can only assume that they have the money and the help of nannies to enable them to cope with the demanding, never ending job of parenting, 24/7. I can’t help but wonder if they ever finally become a mother and think… “Good grief, what have I done?”

Barry is having his annual boy’s golf week. It went from the usual 5 days (Thursday through Monday) and got super-sized to 8 days. He left last Saturday, and is arriving home this Sunday. (Evening) He tried to pull the ‘it’s a couple days of travel’ card, but I’m afraid I don’t buy it. That’s fine when you’re heading over seas, but when the other spouse is at home parenting on their own, a day is a day, I don’t care if there’s travel involved or not! ;-) And of course, his day of travel consists of flying to Phoenix, AZ; not driving somewhere closer. I can’t say I blame him, we’re now smack dab into May, and THIS is what our backyard looks like.

Not a lot of draw to want to spend time outside, that’s for sure. Why wouldn’t a person want to go somewhere warm? Perhaps you’re thinking, well the grass is brown, there are no leaves, it looks terribly dirty and desolate, but is it warm? The answer is no. It is not warm. We still have the arctic wind howling around us. Maybe it’ll warm up in June. Soccer has begun, and poor Mason is dressed up with multiple layers, as if it were December.

Any way, I’ve managed to parent my children, on my own, for an entire week. And everyone is living to tell about it. To be honest, the time has gone by much faster than I anticipated. Once you just say to yourself, “Ok – for the next 8 nights, I’m putting these kids to bed by myself…” it suddenly becomes OK. Because there is simply no other alternative. When the alarm goes off each morning, I have no choice but to bounce out of bed, and get our morning started. It’s funny, because in the 8 months that we’ve had to get up and get Mason off to school, Barry has never rolled over and said, “Go back to sleep, I’ll take care of getting him dressed, eating breakfast, making lunch, packing his back-pack and ensuring that he gets to the bus this morning. (Though there have been a couple of sick days in there that he did indeed let me sleep in and vice versa for him). But every morning I play that particular scenario through my head, when I hear the alarm go off (IF I hear the alarm go off…) And, like I mentioned the only time it’s actually come to fruition, is when I’ve had a sinus infection or fever. But still, there IS always a chance it could happen. But with Barry not here, obviously it wasn't going to happen this week.

And my house has stayed tidier. I slyly mentioned that to him on the phone one night, and his response was “I could say the same thing” To which I thought, Yeah…right. The dishes go into the dishwasher after they've been used. Jackets are being hung up in the closet, and shoes put away! Aside from the kids, no extra laundry to do! It's been quite manageable.

However, having said all of the above, it's been ok because there’s been an end in sight. I know that as of Sunday night, I won't be doing it all by myself any longer. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't do so great, if it were a permanent situation.

It’s Saturday, it’s been one week exactly, since he left. Tonight we’ll watch a movie and make popcorn and go to bed. Tomorrow we’ll do something to keep us busy until it’s time to head to the airport. I’m looking forward to having him back. Here's a few pics of our past week.