I'm interested in these day in the life posts, seen recently at Laura Vanderkam's and SHUbox among other places. And while I realize there's something fundamentally different about how a day feels and how it looks on the page, well, there's also fundamentally different about a single mom of two and a married mom of four with both day and night nanny. Laura likes to say that no day is normal, so here's my today, which I'm beginning with last night, because of the whole insomnia thing.
10:30pm lunesta; read for "pleasure"; good night (LG might still have been awake at this point, dealing with her own prepubescent insomnia)
[awake from about 1-4, including two calls from Tiny Boy and a hallucinatory moment of thinking there's pop music playing--it was actually two different white noise things coming from each child's bedroom; another wake-up around 6:00]
7:35 wake up for the day; LG is still asleep, which is bad, because she needs to be out of the house 8:00 if she walks, 8:15 if she's given a ride, which was fortunately the case today; get dressed in yoga clothes; Tiny Boy up at 7:45; get him dressed, potty and teeth
8:00 make coffee and Tiny Boy's lunch; make sure LG has breakfast, brushes teeth, etc.; I remember having a few minutes with Tiny Boy but not what we did...
8:30 take out the trash; drive Tiny Boy to school
9:00-10:45 yoga class (which is supposed to end at 10:30 but never does); get dressed and drive to work
11:00-11:45 meet with two students who can't do usual office hrs
11:45-3:15 annual departmental symposium thing (which actually goes until 6:00 but no can do--during a really boring time I take out the student writing to comment on)
3:30 home; call the pediatrician back; deal with email
4:10 LG home; say hello (she wants private time so I go back to work); read journal submission due Sun.
4:40 pick up Tiny Boy
5:00 home; hang out while he watches 15 minutes of Dolphin Tale; make dinner; eat dinner; dishes in dishwasher; kids try playing a game but results in yelling
6:45 begin Tiny Boy's protracted bedtime rituals
7:45 put him in bed; LG is making her lunch for tomorrow; write this.
Hope that he falls asleep. That she listens. She has a debate tournament tomorrow and was up until after 10:00 last night, probably nervous. Usually I tuck her in at 9:00. I'd like to take a bath. I'd like to read. I actually need to read, of the too much work variety. I will probably watch a bit of TV (we started over with season 1 of Gilmore Girls ) The weekend will be lots of kid activities, and the grocery store, and hopefully a visit from a friend out of town. And thankfully I have two hours of paid childcare coming on Sunday, because not enough actual work happened today, though I spent a lot of time on campus.
10:30pm lunesta; read for "pleasure"; good night (LG might still have been awake at this point, dealing with her own prepubescent insomnia)
[awake from about 1-4, including two calls from Tiny Boy and a hallucinatory moment of thinking there's pop music playing--it was actually two different white noise things coming from each child's bedroom; another wake-up around 6:00]
7:35 wake up for the day; LG is still asleep, which is bad, because she needs to be out of the house 8:00 if she walks, 8:15 if she's given a ride, which was fortunately the case today; get dressed in yoga clothes; Tiny Boy up at 7:45; get him dressed, potty and teeth
8:00 make coffee and Tiny Boy's lunch; make sure LG has breakfast, brushes teeth, etc.; I remember having a few minutes with Tiny Boy but not what we did...
8:30 take out the trash; drive Tiny Boy to school
9:00-10:45 yoga class (which is supposed to end at 10:30 but never does); get dressed and drive to work
11:00-11:45 meet with two students who can't do usual office hrs
11:45-3:15 annual departmental symposium thing (which actually goes until 6:00 but no can do--during a really boring time I take out the student writing to comment on)
3:30 home; call the pediatrician back; deal with email
4:10 LG home; say hello (she wants private time so I go back to work); read journal submission due Sun.
4:40 pick up Tiny Boy
5:00 home; hang out while he watches 15 minutes of Dolphin Tale; make dinner; eat dinner; dishes in dishwasher; kids try playing a game but results in yelling
6:45 begin Tiny Boy's protracted bedtime rituals
7:45 put him in bed; LG is making her lunch for tomorrow; write this.
Hope that he falls asleep. That she listens. She has a debate tournament tomorrow and was up until after 10:00 last night, probably nervous. Usually I tuck her in at 9:00. I'd like to take a bath. I'd like to read. I actually need to read, of the too much work variety. I will probably watch a bit of TV (we started over with season 1 of Gilmore Girls ) The weekend will be lots of kid activities, and the grocery store, and hopefully a visit from a friend out of town. And thankfully I have two hours of paid childcare coming on Sunday, because not enough actual work happened today, though I spent a lot of time on campus.
Yike. Glad for your child care, too ... I started ordering groceries (not to be delivered, but to pick up) because it's another hour I can get back in the day. Worth what I end up paying for it on the crazier weeks ... (!)
ReplyDeleteNot a lot of work in that day. And thank goodness for yoga...because if I don't take time when I have paid childcare it just doesn't happen.
ReplyDeleteIf I could get groceries ordered I would totally do that, too.
I have to say I didn't even know there was such a thing as a night nanny, until you mentioned it and then I went to look it up. Lo and behold, she indeed has both a day and a night nanny!
ReplyDeleteI have to admit I was shocked. I am not judging her; I think the shock is from realizing that, until now, I hadn't really grasped just how much LV and I are NOT in the same economic class at all.
I feel I am well paid for my work, but then I realize there are people (not Donald Trump or Kanye West, mind you, but what I would consider normal people) who are far, faaar wealthier than me.
And then for a little while I feel stupid, not sure why. Maybe because it dawns on me that I am a stupid little professor, thinking her intellectually challenging and emotionally demanding job is worth squat.
Yup. It's really astonishing.
ReplyDelete