Being a Working Mom is Hard Stuff: Some Days are Harder

You know those days where it's seems you just cannot keep up. It's like the 300 hurdles. Did you ever run that race? I did. And after dreading it for most of the track meet, it was the hardest race to finish with the same technique that you started with. Each hurdle got harder and harder to clear and sometimes that last one, well, right there in front of everyone in the stands, you straddled it and fell right on your face. Maybe you caught yourself on your hands, but it was clearly a devastating fall and you weren't going to come even close to winning the race. 

Sometimes days are like that for me. Each hurdle gets harder. I feel like I can't run a foot farther and my body is getting so tired, but I can't stop. I can't just not finish the race. 

Today was definitely one of those days. As a working mom, our schedule is so finely tuned to each minute that sometimes if one more thing is added, the bottom starts to fall. 

I need a stamp. Do you know how hard that is when your work lunch is the same time as the post office's lunch. And as a teacher, putting a sign on your door, "Be back in 5" just isn't acceptable. There's a light on my dash in my car that has been blinking "Change Engine Oil." I have no idea when this will happen. Two out of three boys went to practice today without their cleats. My kindergartner told his teacher that his mom's favorite meal to cook is Spaghettio's. I start laundry at 7 am and finish the one load at 10 pm. Sometimes. 

From the 5:30 am alarm clock, to the 10pm collapse on the couch, sometimes it feels like too much. But it's not. It's just that long race full of hurdles. Sometimes we fall on our face, and everyone sees it. Other times we make it to the end still on our feet. Either way, we make it.  We still have the next day to wake up and do it again. Eventually, though, we need to get an oil change. Stop and take care of things. Or else, your car might die. And then, how in the world will your kids get anywhere?