Happy New Year! So how was your Christmas break with the kiddies, then? I have to confess I am very happy to be back in my office with peace and quiet and space to think and only me to consider for four hours this morning.
Don’t get me wrong: it was a really special Christmas, with DS running around and DD really getting the whole anticipation/Santa/excited about presents thing this year for the first time. And it was lovely to have DH off work for so long.
But I haven’t got those New Year new term back-to-school blues this year. I don’t get that sinking feeling on Sunday nights anymore, either. I love my children immeasurably, and am increasingly finding them genuinely good company. AND I really enjoy having space and time to myself, which only really happens when they are at nursery two mornings and one full day a week, and I am in my home office.
A couple of times over Christmas I got a little bit desperate and just needed an hour in the house to myself, just to have a shower in peace, straighten the house, have a bit of a tidy round and get my head back together. DH stepped in and whisked them off to Pret for ‘coffee and cake’ both times, and I got some much-needed breathing space.
At least two of my close friends with children say they rarely or never have time in their own house by themselves. I’ve written before about the liberating feeling of heading off into town alone for an hour for a potter sans pushchair. I find the odd hour at home by myself when I’m not at work and am choosing to do things equally refreshing, whether I’m getting on top of the laundry without the two little ones piling it all on the floor and throwing themselves on it in the game they call ‘boff’, or sitting down for 20 minutes with a good book or magazine, a cuppa and a chocky treat. For me, it feels almost as rejuvenating as a minibreak. Oh God, that sounds sad. And doesn’t mean I don’t need an actual minibreak…
So how is it for you? How much time – during the day – do mums really have to themselves, in or out of the house? Is it enough? Do you need or want it, or is it just me who skipped into the office after the nursery run this morning?!
Pinchypants 
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Oh no, it is not just you! I can’t run fast enough when I am granted some time on my own. The break has been brilliant. Like you I had DH at home and it was so nice being able to split daily care. It was funny to see that my husband patience went from much better than mine to far worse than mine by the end of the week 🙂
I really think that it is not we became mothers that we should give up a bit of time by ourselves.
I work from home and it makes it really hard to be on my own in the week. My youngest goes to a childminder on a adhoc basis, depending on my work load and my eldest is at preschool twice a week and only morning. As much as I love them more than anything and that I wouldn’t want it any other way, it is always good to get some breathing space. My luck is that they both have a good 2 hour nap in the afternoon together. So I get that time most days apart from when it goes horribly wrong.
I’m enjoying my first creche day of the year and I have to say it’s BLISS! Even braved the icy roads to get here there. I get two days a week and I so need them. Often just to get a nap. Today I have doctor’s appointment, supermarket, washing, cooking, tidying etc to do. Still? Bliss. Oh yeah.
It doesn’t get any easier when the children grow up!
My diary today was taxi BW to station (Breadwinner Wife),
take down Xmas decs, put tree in back yard, hoover pine needles, 2 loads laundry, hoover bedrooms, fix hoover with duck-tape after tipping-over incident caused broken handle, (why are Dyson cleaners so badly designed, top-heavy and made of brittle plastic??);
make lunch for GM (grandma), spend 40 mins on phone to current car insurer then 20 min with a competitor who is seducing me to defect when renewing annual policy, then 10 min again with the current one; taxi GM to station, taxi SD (step daughter) to another station in next town (don’t ask!), 3rd load of laundry, clean oven ….(for second time in 2 weeks after BW mysteriously filled kitchen with blue smoke at weekend)…. trip to B&Q for black gunk to fix leak in roof of SHTCBTHOIIGMFO (summer-house-that-could-be-turned-into-a-home-office-if-I-get-my-finger-out) then inexplicably find as I always do at B&Q that I have spent thirty quid on other stuff that I didn’t even know I needed;
bleach 3 loos, wash up breakfast and lunch dishes, clean stair carpet on knees with stiff brush, feed cats, taxi BW from station to home, coffee for BW, put supper in pristine non-smoking oven, then apply for 7 jobs on-line before rewarding myself with FaceBook browse then I have to watch Ten OClock News with BW and wash supper dishes…
You’ve been tagged over at mine! 🙂