Jan 19 2010
Walking a Mile in My Shoes
Dale had a four day weekend for MLK day and started the weekend with an act of generosity. “You can sleep in tomorrow,” he said on Thursday night, “I’ll get the kids ready for school in the morning.” Shocked, I replied, “Really? Are your sure?”
A wiser wife would be prepared for this unlikely event, and would have replied, “Thank you. That would be lovely.” My moments as a wiser wife are often few and far between.
Thankfully, after my shocked question, Dale still responded yes. I could have just gone to sleep, but I decided a list would make it less likely that he would have to wake me with a question.
Writing down every single thing that I do in preparation for school, turned out to be a time consuming task. The list consisted of items such as, “turn dryer to damp dry – press on,” “juice box/round cheese/snack bag goldfish/ice pack/note,” “feed dog (get dog food bag out of back of van),” “brush teeth/comb hair,” “Josiah left his lunchbox at school and needs to use your lunchbox,” and “leave house NLT.”
The list was two pages long, a bit of overkill you might say. Yet, when I started, I just couldn’t stop writing until the list that exists in my head was down on paper.
When I woke up from my nice morning of sleeping in, my husband made the following comment, “It really does take two hours. From the moment you wake up until you get back home it is two hours of nonstop work to get them to school.”
Ahhhh brings me back to the day when leaving the kids for a night out involved multiple DETAILED lists for the babysitter. I just chalked it up to being a very good mom….however others have said I have control issues??? Hhhhmmm