I am working like a fiend these days, and I like it. I have an underpaid amusing 40-hr-a-week job as an interpreter, and I am struggling to get my fair trade embroidery project off the ground, which means that by a conservative estimate I’m working 70 hours a week. At least.
And did I mention I’m a single mom again?
(We’re doing great and I don’t wanna talk about it. Thanks.)
During working hours I sit in a call center and C gambols in daycare. They have a trampoline, enough said.
But nights and weekends there is work to do, and egad he does his share.
He already recognises the store where we buy fabric, and knows that we have to go to the second floor, and he runs to where my favourite linen can be found and points at it like a cartoon hound. He also always tries to collect the packed fabric for me, but considering they sell it by the kilo and I buy a month’s worth each time, he barely manages to put his arms around it. Still, the gesture counts.
He also knows the store where I buy the thread, which is right next door to a toy store. His reward for bearing with me while I haggle over buy a month’s worth of embroidery thread is to then go look at every toy in the toy store. I have never bought him a single toy there. Not once.
Once a month we go out into the countryside to meet with the amazing women who embroider for/with me, and he soldiers through an insanely boring 2-3 hour meeting of women wielding embroidery hoops and wads of fabric and discussing the finer points of stem stitch and feather stitch and chain stitch, only to have a quick lunch and then do it all over again at a second location with a second group.
And not long ago he waited patiently on me while I fiddled and fussed and faffed and tinkered and drove the girl at the Office Depot photocopy counter batty for well over 2 hours.
C’s bedtime is at 8:30.
I took this picture at 9:50pm, 10 minutes before they kicked us out because the shop was closing.
Yes, that’s my son in pajamas lying on the floor at Office Depot. At 10 pm on a school night. WORKING.
It’s like the Industrial Revolution all over again.
And you see, I can’t give up.
I have to make this damned project work – for all my embroidering ladies, for myself, and especially for my long-suffering hard-working boy, who has no idea the Industrial Revolution actually ended a long time ago.
PS: I’m overhauling my project’s website right now, so it looks like crap, but it will be an AWESOME e-store as soon as I can get to it. In the meantime, here’s a peek at our new line!
12 Comments
I’m so glad that you’re back posting again! I had a feeling that you were a single mom again. I’m sorry to hear that you’re going through that. I went through it myself 2 years ago and it was a difficult time, but I am happier now as a result. You will be, too. It just takes time.
I can’t wait till I can say it was “2 years ago”. Can time go by just a little faster just now? I’d love a montage. In fact, that’s what I need! A montage!
I’ve just stumbled across your site, and, as a mom of 2 boys, I can TOTALLY relate (I’ve spent the better part of an hour pouring over old posts…) to many of the *ahem* issues you’ve posted about… I firmly believe that many of the people who post randomly that you’re a horrible parent are either A) not parents at all or B) don’t physically take care of their own kids (think-nanny) because WE ALL KNOW that these things happen… I had a similar issue with my older son’s penis (he was circumsized, but it had an adhesion) I’ve taken my son to rickity old playgrounds, and yes, I yell at my child…more than I care to admit. My point, is that we are all bad moms in that sense… but really, we’re just parents, doing our best to raise our children under the all consuming eyes of others. I applaud you for your willingness to share your
triumphstribulations and the fact that your brutally honest about it. I don’t think that people really realize how difficult it is!So for what it’s worth, you’ve gained a reader… who will stick around until #1,001!! (then you’ll have to change the blog name…)
So thank you, for more than entertainment, for honesty and willingness to share, even through mafia-style beat-downs from others.
Thank you!!
Marianne
Sandling All Day
Marianne, that’s the kind of comment that keeps this bad mom blogging. Welcome to the posse! And thanks for your kind words! :)
Thank God you are back online. We missed you!
I am on the other side of a “fairy tale NOT come true” situation. Son and I are recovering.
Hugs! Email me or PM me on Facebook if you wanna talk about it!
Beautiful thing when kids enter to the Etapa Esclavo and you can ask then to do anything you want. If you handle it right you can achieve extending this stage until they are grown ups with a little emotional manipulation. Just a bit.
Cecil H. recently posted Confesiones de año nuevo
You should see him with a broom or a mop. He was *born* to be a janitor, bless him!
Bless his little heart, and take advantage while you can, before he decides to throw a fit about everything. There is a tiny window when they want to be helpful, and they give lots of hugs and kisses. That’s how they suck you in. I keep grabbing my two year old at every opportunity, she is in a cuddle stage, and I know it won’t last. Plus she helps me unload the dishwasher. She is officially my favorite.
Damn, you mean the helpfulness will be over? I brag so much about how AWESOME C is b/c he wants to help with eeeeverything! Gonna have to eat a lot of humble pie. Mmmmm, my favourite.
You’re doing so much work while taking care of him. I’m impressed!! :-D and I don’t think he knows the difference between work and play yet, so you might as well make the most if it ;-)
Rather, I thinks he finds play in everything, and anything can become a toy or a playground. We miss you Lots!