Lunch Hour
Though it might be called lunch hour, in most cases lunch is only a half hour. Oh, those precious 30 minutes. Free rein to ignore client calls – this is your time, not theirs. Usually, you like to surf the web in order to catch up on what’s happening in the sports world since you now go to bed around 8:30 while stuffing your face with whatever leftovers you grabbed from the fridge during the morning’s mad dash out of the house. Not today. You see, your little guy is teething. That means he was up crying four times last night. So while he has the luxury of a scheduled two hour nap at daycare, you’re plotting how to eat lunch while still scoring 20 minutes of your break for some fast zzzzz. Feet up, lean back, and power nap.
Drive Home from Daycare
Preparation is key to survive this gauntlet. (Psst…that means snacks and music.) The same way you might’ve had a colossally bad day at work, your little one could be Captain Cranky Pants on the ride home. That’s why snacks and music are so effective. He can munch on a few graham crackers while enjoying timeless classics like Wheels on the Bus and Itsy Bitsy Spider over and over…and over. By the end of the week, you have the worst ear worm imaginable, but it sure beats listening to him scream for 30 solid minutes.
Dinner, Bath, and Bed
Once you pull into the driveway is precisely when the next hour or two becomes one gigantic blur. Get the (crying) kiddo inside right into mama’s out-stretched arms. Of course, she has no interest in seeing you when her little angel rolls through the door. Nope, your next job involves walking the dog. Hey, if she’s gotta go, she’s gotta go. And just like the mailman, you walk her in rain, snow, sleet, or hail. And picking up after her is just the cherry on top. You deal with plenty of dirty diapers, so why not the dog too? Pup patrol doesn’t relieve you of dinner and bath duties. Nice try, though.
By the time your day is done and you have some time to yourself, it’s around 8:30. And all you want to do is go to bed.
So that’s a typical day for working parents. And it starts all over again tomorrow. So set your alarm, because 4:00 AM will be here before you know it.
Are you a working parent? What’s a typical day in your life like? Share in the comments below.
