I have found my least patient time of day is the fifteen minutes before naptime or bedtime. It could be the most successful day full of fun but around 2:15 or 7:45 Tyrant Mommy comes out. It’s similar to the monster that comes out when these children are due for sleep, but it’s my temper tantrum.
It used to be that I was anxious to get a workout in, or at least I attributed my anxiousness to that. But then I decided I would need to find an alternate time to workout. Then it was because I was working on my blog. Clearly, I still am doing that but I’m not spending hours a day devoted to it like I once was. Next it became my new excitement with being a homemaker. I was baking every spare moment I could find. And now it’s transitioning to moving efforts.
Whatever the reason is, my tolerance for dilly dallying is especially low during the time we spend getting ready for sleep. It’s almost like I become a toddler in need of a nap and I can’t control my behavior. I find myself acting really sternly, forbidding third and fourth trips to the potty, and speeding through story time.
And the days that naps are not in the cards, I usually manage. But there’s usually that expectation made at the beginning of the day. For instance, we have to go somewhere so that doesn’t allow for a nap. The days, however, that I’m expecting a nap…I’m expecting a nap!
Recently I have found that I don’t even want to accomplish the things that I set out for naptime. I blame the new season of shows but I really just want to veg out on the couch while the kids are sleeping. That disappoints me because it’s wasted time, we usually do that at night anyway, and I have so much I could be doing. It’s not like working people get a mid-day break to veg out to tv, why do I deserve one?
I’ve sort of kept my non-working life similar to my working life. We get up in the morning, get ready, get out. We have certain tasks I expect to accomplish, anything from go to Drew’s class to run certain errands. For me to park my butt on the couch and JUST watch tv during naptime seems like a waste of naptime. Especially since my TO DO list is growing by the second.
Am I entitled my rest time or should I be held to the same guidelines that Adam, our family’s working bee, must live by? Is taking care of these rugrats enough to warrant rest? Or am I falling into a stay at home mom’s rut of popping bom boms and watching soaps?
I'm a mother, wife, daughter, and friend. Until recently I was also an employee. Now that I'm a full time mom, I've decided to make my thoughts, concerns and feelings public.
