I am sorry that I did not understand that having children meant that you, the mother, literally had no time to yourself. I had heard my friends complain that there was no time, but I thought it was an exaggeration. Again, I owe you all an apology.
I have been getting up earlier and earlier each morning to try to squeeze in some time to accomplish tasks that I cannot accomplish when my daughter is awake. Workouts, cleaning of the house, and even writing this blog all happen before 6:30 a.m. I could choose sleep over accomplishing something, and there are many days that my body tells me I should, but if I try, I lie awake in bed thinking about what I could be doing if I just got my lazy bottom up and did the work already.
Before having my baby, I was certain that I would have tons of time during the day when she was napping to accomplish all sorts of jobs. Ha, was I an ignorant idiot! First of all, my child did not nap for the first six months of her life except on me. That is a separate topic to be discussed some other day. Now that she naps fairly regularly, nap time transforms me into some OCD version of the Tasmanian Devil. All I do when she naps is whirl all over my house like crazy trying to squeeze in all of the chores that must be completed.
She is sleeping? Ok, what is first on the list? 1) laundry, 2) chop ingredients for dinner, 3) do the dishes, 4) make phone calls that I have been needing to make, oh, and of course, 5) use the ladies’ room! Nine times out of ten, I have managed to complete many or all of the tasks, but without an extra minute to spare, for she is awake and ready to play.
Once again, to all mothers out there, stay at home or otherwise, I am sorry that I was previously clueless. I am sorry that the old adage, “You cannot possibly understand unless you are a mother” is true and that I did not believe it was.
More apologies to come…