Busy Mommy Me

Years ago, when I was working full time and was really just so tired all the time, I yearned to be a stay-at-home mom (or at least a work-at-home mom) because I believed that at home, I’d be able to have more time for myself. I have never been more dead wrong.

Okay, so maybe we are lucky right now to have one househelp to do the cleaning and the laundry. However, the other chores still have to be done by either me or Kai. For example, since Kai works nights, I am the one who has to wake up very early in the morning, not only to prepare breakfast for me and my girls (who have to leave for school by 6:30am) but also prepare the lunch they’re going to bring to school. Sounds easy enough, right? Maybe, but not if baby Ziggy wakes up too at the crack of dawn, which he almost always does. Cooking and taking care of Ziggy at the same time is a real juggling act.

After the girls have left, it’s time to spend alone time with Ziggy either playing with him or watching his favorite cartoons on Disney Junior. We do this until he gets sleepy at about 7 – 8 a.m. When he sleeps that’s the only time I get to do either or all of the following: check my email, blog, blog hop, check my Facebook, wash and sterilize Ziggy’s bottles and go to the bathroom. Ziggy’s nap usually only takes 45 minutes to an hour so I’d be lucky if I get to do all those by the time he wakes up.

Kai gets home about 9 am, just about the same time that Ziggy wakes up. He watches Ziggy while he takes his breakfast while I do other chores again such as prepare Ziggy’s bag for the afternoon. Tidy up the room, which at this point would be messy with toys. Then I give Ziggy a bath. By 11am, Kai goes to sleep and usually that’s the same time that Ziggy gets his second nap as well. When that happens, I have about an hour again to take a shower and prepare myself to leave for the afternoon as well as have lunch. Since I usually eat lunch by myself, I don’t cook anymore and just eat leftovers or whatever canned goods available in our pantry. By noon, Ziggy would be awake. I give him his lunch then play with him and prepare him to leave for the afternoon. I usually wake Kai up shortly before 3pm. We need to leave by 3pm in order to pick the girls up from school. Usually that also involves doing other errands as well.

We’re usually home by 5pm. Kai then cooks dinner while I try to relax a bit. I let the girls play with Ziggy until 6pm when we have our dinner. After dinner usually involves putting Ziggy to bed, helping the girls with homework and making sure they have prepared their school things for the next day, while Kai goes back to sleep again. I wake him up when it’s time for him to go to work. When the kids have all gone to bed and Kai to work, that’s the only real quiet time I get for myself. I either watch TV, read, blog, play games on Facebook or whatever. This is the same routine we follow on most weekdays.

Sometimes I can’t believe I’ve been doing this for over a year already. It used to be that I thought I would become bored to death just staying home. But I realized that I actually like being home. The only downside to this is that I don’t really earn regularly enough (yet!) at home. I hope to change that though. It’s either I get more work-at-home opportunities or I find a new job already. Well, I believe that whatever is meant to be will happen. No matter which way I go though, I know I will always be a busy, busy mom.