A basic Monday
Nothing new under the sun. Very basic indeed. Here’s how a Monday went for a mother:
5:00 AM Significant other leaves for a week for a work trip. 4 year old wakes up and doesn’t want to sleep anymore.
6:30 AM 10 year old wakes up and starts to negotiate about which friend they can hang out after school. The mother handles these negotiations patiently. Snacks are discussed also.
9:00 AM Both children are at school and daycare being supervised by other adults, and the mother is feeling nauseated at work. Feels like a stomach flu?
10:00 AM The women’s magazines reminds the mother that they still haven’t received the article needed. Where is it? The mother stares blankly at the unfinished article on the computer screen, and nausea intensifies. The writing gets worse but the article is send off anyway.
12:00 PM The mother picks up something ready made for the kids to eat later. Good time to catch up on some phone calls.
Rest of the afternoon the mother spends working, with the added bonus of some emergency phone calls with her friends.
4:30 PM The mother leaves to pick up the 4 year old from daycare. She also plans to visit the post office on the way. At the daycare we find out that the mother has forgotten that the 4 year old went to a birthday party on the other side of the city. The mother does not have time to go to the post office, and has to run to catch the train.
5:10 PM The mother carries the 4 year old form the birthday party while pondering the best possible route to pick up the 10 year old from exactly 20 kilometres away. The mother has settled on the best possible route and heads to get her car from home. The 4 year old falls asleep in the car, which means bedtime later will be very pleasant indeed.
5:45 PM The 10 year old is in the car. Negotiations on bedtime start, the mother and the 10 year old have vastly different views. Heated negotiations last all the way home. The mother informs, that the controller to the xbox will be confiscated and returned only when there will be no more fighting about bedtime. Hysteria ensues. The mother gets the blame. Crying is involved.
6:30 PM Dinner is ready. The children inform the mother that they do not like the chicken, even though it was their favorite before.
6:31 PM The mother pours herself a glass of wine.
6:45 PM The mother is informed that she can’t make cucumber crowns properly.
7:15 PM Various bedtime routines
7:45 PM A question for the mother: “At school the bigger kids say ‘suck my dick’ a lot. What does it mean?” The mother considers if this is a question they could delegate to the godparents or a friend. She frets the follow up questions, which naturally know no limits.
8:05 PM The mother clarifies the deeper meaning on ‘suck my dick’. The answer seems to be satisfying enough.
8:06 PM The mother pours herself a couple more glasses of wine.
8:07 PM The mother hopes there’s something fun to watch on TV. Like The Bachelorette.
8:46 PM The mother remembers there’s a chocolate bar and eats it on one go.
Tomorrow is a new day, hopefully a better one.
Cover photo by Nathan Dumlao.
— Editors
The writer of this story is a member of the Mom of Finland community.
There are 0 comments, leave a reply.
