After writing for Mothers in Medicine for a year, I took a short sabbatical from writing. It wasn’t planned or intentional. I have been carrying around this gnawing feeling that my kids are growing up so fast, and I need to spend whatever time I can eek out with them.
With six months of planning, I scheduled an extra day out of my office to spend with Will & Harry for the summer. I’m really liking my three day a week schedule, and I don’t think the extra day has put undue burden on my partners.
My fantasy about this summer with my sons was a glossy mirage of day trips to pick blueberries and find adventure together. As with most of my fantasies – going back to residency to do pediatric dermatology, starting a bead/jewelry company, surf lessons, decluttering my bonus room – reality has a way of smacking me between the eyes with either lack of skill, lack of time, or just lack of motivation.
So the score mid-summer for these idyllic trips:
Lovely Day trips with sons: 0
Loud action movies with popcorn/soda/candy in sedentary repose: 4
Afternoons spent with neighborhood boys running through my house: TMTK (too many to count)
On realization of the above score, I made the command decision last Thursday, to have an adventure and seek out our new IKEA store. (Can you hear the boos in the background? Sheesh, house wares, mom, what kind of adventure is that?) We set out for the twenty minute trek to the blue and yellow Mecca with promises (read bribes) of treats. So ninety minutes later, lost in 91 degree southeastern summer heat with limited AC in my station wagon, I discover that several “friends” have joined our trip:
Howie Mutch Longa
Tutantired Togo
Ima Lousie’n Mya Mynda (my BFF)
Dewie Hafta Ngo
Fortunately, bouncing on display beds and opening a myriad of drawers in the IKEA showroom once we found it disbanded our unhappy group of travelers. The strategic placement of the concession stand at the end of check-out taught me the power of Swedish Fish. And I have a plan to streamline our multipurpose bonus room – otherwise known as home office-guest room-exercise equipment storage-Lego & X Box central clearinghouse. I can also smile to myself when one of the boys starts a sentence “Remember the time mom dragged us to…” because I know time has a way of sugarcoating these memories as we age.
Hehe. I love those names. I can see the bottom one being an actual Vietnamese person's name.
ReplyDeleteI held off on returning to work for similar reasons (I'm returning in September). #of times to beach=0. #of episodes of Phineas and Ferb - an unreasonable number that I'm too embarassed to guess at. However, we do have a kiddie pool which has been used frequently as has our sprinkler and our bubbles. So all is not lost.
ReplyDeleteThat is real life after all. It never goes as planned. On a separate note, though, Ikea is a fantastic place for kids, isn't it? My kids love the play room, but they love the store almost as much. And who can blame them?
ReplyDeletePaper - I came up with some other names, but they were too close to real I thought it unwise to use them.
ReplyDeleteMommy Doctor - like you, I try to go with the flow with my kids - but occasionally I have to make that"command" decision to do something I want to do and bring them with me (within reason) -usually they're good with it once they realize I'm not trapping them in a dressing room trying on clothes or in a nail salon.
Tempeh - real life never does go as planned - why do I have such a hard time remembering that? Human nature, I guess. IKEA was wonderful - my tween really got into planning our bonus room with me!