I left the kids with Scott for 5 days while I did the Blogher thing in San Diego. I kept trying to prepare him for what it might be like, how stressful it would inevitably be, how impossible it would be to keep the house and the kids clean. I didn’t want him to feel disappointed in himself.
I know how hard it is to do it all on your own. I stay by myself with them for a week at a time many, many times a year while he travels for work. I KNOW how mind-numbing the experience can be, how they just suck every last ounce of energy out of you, leaving you with no will to clean the house, and most days, even yourself. Most of the time when Scott gets back from a week-long work trip, the house looks like a bomb went off, and I greet him in my pajamas at 5 p.m. from the night before, hair pulled back in a messy ponytail, hairy legs. But, I present to him 2 alive, well, and mostly happy children; I consider it a success.
“It’s all about survival mode,” I told him. “All you have to do is survive and keep the kids alive. I’ll help clean when I get home.”
I’m a very kind wife like that.
Oh, survive they did. And thrive. And clean.
I came home on Sunday night to a house that was not only clean, but he had actually taken on projects to organize, too. Our master closet has been a death trap for nearly a year. I thought about taking a “before” picture of it to share with you all one day, but I was worried somebody would turn me into CPS for letting my kid play hide and seek in it. (Only sort of kidding.)
Just imagine it looking nothing like this with huge mounds of clothes and shoes on the floor and craft supplies like scissors and glue guns precariously teetering over the top shelves.
He claims he just “had to do something.” He couldn’t just “sit around all day.” “Not that *you* sit around all day!” he was sure to make that disclaimer.
So the closet was organized, the dishes were done, the floors swept, the bathrooms clean, the laundry? Washed, folded AND put away. I can never make all that happen in a week!
The icing on the I-Must-Suck-At-My-Job cake is now Leyna will only fall asleep if he rocks her. She spent 4 hours yesterday fighting a nap, and I mean fighting in the truest sense; I have the scratches, bruises and nearly lost a nipple to prove it. Scott walked in from work, took her from me, rocked her for 2 minutes and she was out. I think she hates me for leaving her.
That’s fine. Whatever. I’m okay with sucking at this. I think this is a sign that I should get paid to “network” some day while he stays home. I was very awesome at “networking” last week. Now… to get paid large sums of money to dress up, drink wine, squeee at other ladies and hug everyone I see…. must think on how to make that happen.
I have an actual Blogher re-cap post coming tomorrow. In the meantime, be sure to enter the BornFree Blogher Giveaway for a $500+ prize package. Anyone, even those of you not at Blogher (from the US and Canada) can enter.