One Day At A Time

Being a part-time working Mum is tricky. I enjoy my job but I feel guilty for being away from my kids. I hate being away from them and yet, my family needs my income.

Monday is my favourite day. We wake up early (my kids wake up early every.single.day.without.fail.even.on.holidays.) and take our time. We play, we chat, we eat, we have our 'cuppas'. Isla and I walk Max down to his Spielgruppe around 9:00 and then we meander back. Sometimes we stop for a fresh bun at the bakery but sometimes we don't. We get home and have lovely Isla/Mummy time. We sing, dance and clean together. She tells me stories and I tell her some back. At 11:00 we walk down and get Max. On the way home he is full of what he did at Spielgruppe that morning and how he is "starving" and couldn't possibly wait until we get home in 5 minutes and eat something. We get home and snack a bit while we make lunch. After lunch, Isla and Max play together because all too soon, Isla goes for her nap and me and Max have quiet time. Max chooses this time of day to plug into the techno-geek inside himself. He and I play computer games or his Daddy's DS. We craft and bake and eat cookie dough. Sometimes, we go outside and I watch him ride his bike. When Isla wakes up we all go to the park if the weather is good. We walk Max down the hill to the local school at 2:15 for his Rythmik 1 Music class and go back at 3:00 to pick him up (I go up and down the hill a lot on Monday! Phew!) Josh comes home soon after that and makes dinner and we wind down the day with games and a little TV. I put them to bed feeling sad that Monday is over. I'm not saying it is perfect...we have the 3 t's on Monday too (tears, tantrums and time-outs) but Mondays are usually the kind of days that I thought I would have when I imagined being a Mum. Tuesdays are good too but we don't go into the village much. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are my working days and then comes the glorious weekend.

I try and take every day as it comes and find good things in each day, even when I am not doing exactly what I want to be doing. One day at a time...sage advice indeed.