This is an emotional weekend for me. Monday, I return to work and we begin the routine of bringing Riley to daycare. As I sort through my work clothes to find which ones fit, plan & prepare the next week’s meals and get Riley’s diaper bag ready for his caregiver, I feel those pangs of mommy guilt. I join the legions of women working outside of the home who deal with this every day.
I don’t like the term “working mom”, knowing that even stay-at-home moms are working too. I was amazed these past 3 months at how tired I was by late afternoon – and that’s with an easy baby who sleeps fairly well. Now, I’ll have to find the time to get the essentials done (laundry, meals, pay bills) in 55 less hours per week. We want to maximize our Riley time. The floors may have to wait.
I’m glad that I have a husband who is good at keeping house and willing to help with the load. I can thank his mom for giving him that training. We actually have a pretty good division of labor around the house. I clean the kitchen, he cleans the bathrooms – we both do laundry as needed. I pay the bills; he takes out the garbage and recycling. We make meals together on the weekend so there’s more family time during the week. His willingness to be a team player is one of the things I appreciate the most about J.
Tho’ there should be plenty to do at the office to keep my mind occupied, I’m planning to keep the hankie nearby as I expect to be missing my boy a lot.
Speaking of whom, Riley seems to have gotten over whatever he was dealing with the past few days. He was flirting with the cashiers at Trader Joes yesterday, giving them his big smile and is more playful with us again. I suspect that he’s getting to an age where he is expressing more of his dislikes, so what I may term as moodiness is just him communicating his wishes more often.
Mama loves her Riley-boy!
Shelby
2 comments:
Shelby, I have written an article at our blog (can you believe it?) in response to your post:
http://bargersvilleberts.wordpress.com/2007/08/19/thank-you-day-care/
Basically it boils down to:
(1) The first few times taking the kid to daycare really, really sucks.
(2) But then the kid adapts to his/her surroundings, and it doesn't suck any more.
(3) And eventually the kid gets to do things that they wouldn't necessarily get at home, especially if you use an educational daycare, and that really doesn't suck.
(4) There are a lot of people out there who think daycare is flat out evil. They perpetuate this feeling of mommy guilt mainly because they can't put themselves in other people's shoes. And they suck.
So hang in there. Daycare has been a very positive experience for our two.
Now that's our bloggin' bert-bert!
Thankfully, there's no pressure from others to stay home as they understand that our financial situation demands it.
I agree that it will be good for Riley to have the stimulation and socialization that he wouldn't get at home. I just really enjoy him at this stage and don't feel quite ready to separate. Another 3-9 months and I probably would be.
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