I’ll admit, sometimes I feel like my life is one big first world problem. I’m super fortunate that while there are some annoyances that test my patience each day, some wrinkles I’d love to have smoothed out, I face no true, big problems. I try to remain mindful and thankful of that at all times, as I know how quickly things can change.
With that in mind, I’ll share my current, biggest, first world annoyance: I often have no idea what day it is.
That’s a common summer problem for at-home parents, as our schedules become fluid once the constraints of school are removed from them. But it’s been crazier for me this year since S. has Mondays off.
We do normal weekend stuff – visit our local vacation spot1, go to the pool, cookout with friends, etc. – which after nearly three months at her new job, is starting to feel normal again. But on Mondays, when the rest of the world goes back to work and their regular schedules, she’s still here hanging out with us. We can extend our stay at our LVS, go to the pool in the middle of the day, head to the mall, or anything else we want/need to do. And as we meander through our Mondays, I’m constantly thinking, “Wait, it’s not Sunday?” Even watching neighbors head off to their offices in the morning or seeing the mailman come doesn’t flip the switch in my head.
You would think after nearly nine years of doing the at-home dad thing, my system would be flushed of all those old, internal rhythms that fit the five-day work week. Apparently not.
M. and C. are three weeks and change from returning to school. While this has been a great summer so far, with some more fun events planned for the next month, I’m kind of looking forward to August 14 just so I can take them to school each Monday and have a clean, solid start to each week.
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- Which I shall call LVS from now on. ↩