Working mom - myths and facts

2 weeks down, 20.5 years to go! There are definitely some misconceptions I had and some things I was dead on about. Obviously all of my opinions are subject to, and will most likely change as time goes on, but with a baby just under 4 months old, this is where my head is.

You leave work and do more work. MYTH.

 

Wayyyy before I was on the baby train, I had no idea how my mom coworkers managed to work a full day and then go home and continue to "work", aka be a parent while I was mindlessly browsing the internet with my feet up. Getting home and being with Dalton is the absolute best.

I wait all day to see that smile.

I spend the entire day at work counting down the hours, and get so excited when I finally pull into the parking lot at his daycare. I can't even believe I used to get excited about just sitting around by myself. I realize that sounds totally like it belongs on STFU Parents as all "my life without children was empty and meaningless!", but I call it like I see it.

It's how I imagine the world was for chocolate lovers before Reese's were invented. They all thought chocolate was so great and couldn't be improved, then BAM someone filled it with peanut butter and they realized what they thought was perfection could get so much better. Don't get me wrong, I still love being lazy and mindless entertainment, and I certainly do it during naptimes. It's just not the best way to occupy my time anymore.

Working out will be challenging to fit in. FACT.

I am gladly willing to sacrifice housework for it and less glad to sacrifice a tiny bit of sleep. I do what I can and if I can get in a couple minutes of sweat on any given day while Dalton is sleeping, great. If not, so be it.

Getting ready for the day requires more coordination than launching a nuclear missile. MYTH.

We have a lot going for us here.

• We live in a small place (no going up and down stairs).
• We both get ready at more or less the same time (and therefore can tag team baby entertaining/getting ready).
• Dalton is still at the age where you can plop him down and rest assured he will stay in that spot (when that ends, god help us).
• He's too young to have an opinion about anything and I get to dress him in whatever cute outfits I want.

Preppy baby. I die.

•  My job requires me to read novels with ten year olds, not meet with clients. AKA I don't have to dress to impress, or look put together, or even shower if you want to get technical (but, I still do). It's even better now that I teach kids old enough to understand tact. When I taught first grade, they thought nothing of yelling out "what's that big red bump on your nose?!". Side note - pregnancy did not clear up my skin as promised.

Obviously, it takes more time and is more hectic than when we were only responsible for ourselves, but it's not too bad.

I would miss my weekend social life. MYTH

Because we have awesome friends (both to spend time with and to babysit), we actually went on a "date" this weekend! Our very first date ever was the Saturday of MLK Jr. weekend, so it really pleased me that our first post baby date was the same day. I'm easy to amuse.

We went out for my lovely running buddy, Lily's birthday.

Dalton helped me wrap the gift.

My wonderful work bestie Kristin came over with her daughter to babysit. Aside from the fact that the GPS took us on a 30 mile drive in the wrong direction TO PENNSYLVANIA, we had so much fun! But at the same time, I couldn't wait to get home and back to baby snuggling. Yet another fantastic friend offered to babysit Dalton that night so we could go out to dinner just the two of us, and while the offer was much appreciated, I really wasn't interested. I just spend way too much time away from him during the week. Eric made us grilled cheese and tomato soup while I held Dalton in the kitchen so he could watch (he loves looking around the kitchen for some reason) and we took turns eating and baby holding, and it was perfect. But, maybe I'll be dying for a babysitter when tantrums and backtalk start in a few years?



Right now I  can't imagine being mad at this face.

 

Leaving your baby with someone else sucks. FACT.

There’s no way around the fact that leaving him is torture each morning and I miss him like crazy all day long. First I was wracked with guilt over him being miserable and crying all day. Then I went to pick him up this week and he was happily sitting in his caregiver's arms. I was so relieved that he was content. But also kind of like…hey let’s not get too chummy here. I’m your mom and you are supposed to like me the best. So basically there’s no winning.

Doing errands after work is a pain. DEPENDS.

On one hand, who wants to waste our precious short time together driving places? On the other hand, sometimes he falls asleep on the way home anyway, and then I can kill two birds with one stone and get stuff done while he takes his evening nap. That worked out Friday and then he woke up and had a blast looking around Target, AND it lit a fire under my ass to get in and get out and I didn’t leave with $50 worth of stuff that wasn’t on the list.

This cuteness almost caused me to crash the cart numerous times.

 

There’s also a grocery store right around the corner from his daycare, so it’s pretty convenient to run in and grab a couple things I need for dinner on my way to pick him up.

Housework would never happen again. MYTH.

I’ve been pretty transparent that I’m no Suzy Homemaker to begin with, but obviously even the bare minimum to keep a place livable takes time. Babywearing is a lifesaver – I’ve been strapping him on and doing skin to skin time when I get home and getting as much done as I can before he gets antsy. Cuddles + productivity = winning, plus it’s supposedly a way to help your supply. The past two weekends we did cleaning blitz during naptime – quickly divided up tasks based on skill sets before we put him down, then raced to get as much done as we could before he woke up. So while things are still, and will probably always be messy, they aren’t too dirty.

 

Exhaustion. Because baby. DEPENDS.

 

I hesitate to speak on this subject because last time I described sleep as “good” I got my ass handed to me that night. Coffee is certainly a lifesaver and maybe I’m getting used to being functional on less sleep? Or maybe it just hasn’t been long enough and soon being upright will be physically painful? At any rate, clearly painting was exhausting, because this kept happening when we got home.

 

 

 

He was midsentence for this one.

I was concerned with his breathing here.

 

Which painting do you like better, mine or Eric's?