The Simplicity of He Time

In my previous post, I wrote about the complexity of “me time” wherein I am working on how I can find, keep, and use the short time I have for myself after the baby is asleep and dinner has been devoured (or slowly picked at if you know my cooking). I wanted to take this time to marvel at my husband’s amazing ability to find time for himself. As I have mentioned, my husband works the greater part of 50 hours a week, closer to 60 some weeks and here I am rushing to get things done so I can enjoy a few moments to myself and he maintains his usual pace and ends up somehow getting that balance. Now I’m going to be honest, the “balance” for both of us is really “unbalanced” because there is never enough time for either of us but my husband has the wonderful knack for finding time for himself. Here’s how he does it, one word: Simplicity.

While I am running around trying to get things done, he takes his time. It helps him conserve energy for later. He is very easy to please. All he wants for “he time” is a remote or a video game controller. He is a homebody by nature and is generally happy hanging out around the house, whereas I am a frantic wreck if I don’t get out of the house at least once a week to get some retail therapy or some face to face time with a friend. Don’t get me wrong, my husband loves to go out to any type of sporting event but in general he is a very laid back, peaceful man who somehow has almost never ending patience for me as I try to balance it all. He is the natural born domestic go to person in the house if there is one. He cooks a mean meal, he folds shirts and makes beds to perfection (thanks Army) and can clean up a diaper mess one handed! We have already talked and decided that if the day ever comes for us financially, he will be a stay at home dad! What an awesome guy!

Thus I am going to try to take a chapter from his book and just work in the moment, do what I can at the pace I can and try to enjoy the time I do have in simplistic ways. There are enough complicated situations in my day so I am going to work on sticking to simple. So who knows, maybe you will see me with a video game controller in my hand a little more often (I am a wicked Harry Potter Legos player btw). 

The Complicated Process of Me Time

I have not been writing like I normally do. It’s not writers block. It’s not like I don’t want to rush to my key board every time I see Emma dance or have a funny mishap happen at the grocery store or when the annoying woman in the cubical adjacent to mine incessantly scrapes the bottom of her yogurt cup every day. I want to dissect the meaning of each situation I encounter and share my overall thoughts on this wondrous world I find myself in. It’s just I have finally found some sort of balance, some sort of flow to the day where I reach the end and begin the next in a predictable repetition and I like it.

I have seemed to stumble onto a momentary island of piece where I could possibly be storing all of my quiet, reflective moments for a much crazier time. I maybe storing them up to return to this island later or I might be actually cashing in my need for serenity now. Either way, my routine is down and I have found a way to carve out time for myself that does not involve cleaning, cooking, changing poppy diapers or starting at spreadsheets and I like it. After Emma goes to sleep around 6:30pm I enter the magnificent time that is just for me to do whatever I please! Even though I have managed to capture this time for myself, I seem to have unshakable thoughts of uncertainty running through my head during this time. Shouldn’t I be finishing the laundry from last weekend? I have a great story to share, shouldn’t I blog? Did I get all of the bills paid? There is a pile of dishes in the sink…maybe I should do something about that? How’s about I get a head start on making baby food for the rest of the week?

I have resolved this back and forth with two resolutions: I end up saving all of the mundane tasks for later or I multi-task them (ie. wash the bottles/dishes while simultaneously cooking dinner). So for now, I am selfishly rolling around in this space and time, me time, and savoring every unread page, every unwatched dvr show, and every freshly painted nail of it all. This little bit of time for myself in the evening has become a most sacred time for me and sometimes I do not want to share it with other tasks. Does that make me a bad mother? Nope. It actually makes me a more relaxed, refreshed mom! I will get to my pot of gold at a turtle’s pace if need be and that is just fine with me. For now, with the lack of vacation time and it looking like there will be few mommy only moments in the near future, I will take this time however I please! I will abuse it and use it badly to watch crapy tv and read idiotic teen sci-fi novels and I will laugh to myself with glee!

I will ever get everything done in a day, it just doesn’t happen, but for now I am enjoying me time. It was complicated getting here and I maybe harboring complex side thoughts about how I am using my time, but I love it.

Actually It Is Me

I wanted to issue a somewhat of an apology to my friends and family that inhabit my old space (BC: before children) whom I addressed in my previous post. I in no way was meaning to belittle anyone’s situation at all, merely to vent my own frustrations of existing in a social world where I am the odd man out, rather than internalize it any more I decided to be out with it.

Do I wish I had more friends with kids, of course. Can I throw a “mommy tantrum” to manipulate the universe to get my way? Eh not really. So, I wanted to say how much I appreciate each of you and everything you have done to support me during this transitional time in my life which is actually me building a whole new life. No, I am not the same, never will be. Am I eagerly awaiting some of you to join me! I hope I am the first person you call when you are ready to register for baby items! I have already scheduled myself in with my sister for when she goes. I can’t wait to share with them everything I have discovered (as if I don’t talk their ears off with this info already). I can’t wait for them to discover things on their own! I can’t wait to give them vague, Yolda like advice and see them run with it! And I also want to be there for my friends and family that decide kids aren’t for them, all wonderful in my book. To each their own and while when you enter my blog space to read my thoughts and feelings, I hope you can understand that they are just that, shared to give you a glimpse into my reality and hopefully help others if they should find themselves in similar situations.

It’s Not You, it’s Me…Well it Really is You But it’s Not Your Fault

I came to a stark realization last weekend. It was one of those things that had come up before but was not a big deal, until it became a BIG deal. I really should probably not even be bringing this up. I should and AM very grateful for all of my friends and supporters. As a mom, anyone you have cheering in your corner willing to help or lend an ear is a precious gift, but this past weekend I had an abundance of gifts shall I say.

Don’t get me wrong, love and support in any dose is amazing, but the problem is what I need more than that is understanding. You see, somehow or the other I ended up in a situation where I have a child and no one (except for one person) in my close circle of friends and family has kids. The majority of my friends are still living in my old world of blissful (or sometimes not so blissful) ignorance. Everyone says they understand or they know how hard it is but really if you have not spent every moment of every day in my shoes then you do not understand. I do not blame anyone for their lack of understanding or for not having gone through exactly what I have in a day (heck I do not wish most of it on anyone) but certain information does not translate across child/ non-child having boundaries.

Part of my problem this weekend was my own fault, I had over scheduled myself with too many activities yet again and I ended up having to cancel one of the activities but I wish I had said no to more. It’s just that every time I say no, even if I get an “oh that’s ok” or “oh I totally understand” I feel like they really don’t. I give them as good of an explanation as I can: No, I can’t be out past 9pm because I will likely pass out from exhaustion. No, I can’t attend that function with a child because my child does not sit still and that function is a sitting only kind of thing. Can’t afford that, to frazzled for that, that would create extra laundry/ cleaning so, no, pass on that. I mean there are only so many explanations I can give and anything I say fails to capture the true problem that would come about should I give in to a social event or function.

One example of this is a dinner my husband and I were invited to. My husband does not get off work on Saturdays until 5pm which gets him home around 5:30pm. Emma’s bed time is 6:00pm so that does not leave much time for Saturday night outings unless we have a babysitter. I had already reserved my mom/ sister’s sitting services for the next night so that left me sitterless on Saturday night, which meant no dinner but that did not stop my friend from suggesting  a 6:30pm dinner time. My normal response would be to say sorry to tired or that would have us out late, when what I really should be saying to flesh out my seemingly lame excuse is: 6:30pm you say?!?! Didn’t I say she goes to sleep at 6:00pm!?!? Oh that’s right you haven’t spent countless nights perfecting a night night routine so your child does not end up awake at 7:30pm crabby and screaming. Harsh I know, but true, yes.  In the end, I ended up going to dinner with them by myself while daddy stayed home with a peacefully sleeping baby. But this unawareness on a friend’s part was small potatoes compaired to what happened Sunday night.

Before my big Valentine’s date last Sunday with my husband and our other friends, I ended up having a major blow out about the dogs and dog hair getting all over the house. Normally, I am pretty passive about the situation. We have four dogs and I love them all dearly. We always have dog hair all over us. Grand! End of story. Before I had a baby I was even more lax about the whole situation. I would go into work covered in dog hair so often that it didn’t even faze people after a while.  Now that Emma is crawling and eating everything she finds on the floor, I try to keep a dog hair free zone in at least part of the house. That mission coupled with my (sweet but judgmental mom) coming over on Sunday to babysit left me determined I was not going to let dog hair inhabit my living space for several hours if I could help it.

Enter my fun-loving, child-free friends, who have 3 dogs and are just as if not more avid dog lovers than my family. Well it only took minutes for the dog hair to fly, after I had asked them to try to take it easy with the dogs, but I should have known. It was madness corralling the dogs outside and horror of horrors; my friends started to pet the dogs! The actions of which resulted in dog hair on the floor.

Ok maybe we need to back up to how I have not had a mommy break that lasted longer than an hour or two before passing out at night in a long time, so I was on edge as it was. Does that make my actions excusable? Maybe just a little? Well anyways a moment I’m not so proud of happened and I yelled at everyone. I lost it. Even though I had tried to explain to my friends what the deal was, they still had no idea, no clue. It was more than just the few hours I had spent cleaning the house for that day. It was the culmination of countless hours of cleaning before that and the lack of sleep and the trying to nurture a clingy child who doesn’t let me go to the bathroom and the endless hours of guilt while I am at work when I would rather be at home so maybe I could have a better handle on the cleanliness of my house or the care of my child and on and on and exhaustingly on.

Once again, I do not want this to be seen as complaining. I really am not trying to have a pity party.  I want it to be seen as a therapeutic moment where I vent about feeling somewhat alone in all of this. I have no one who is calling me up to share a diaper explosion story so I can combat theirs with mine. I want that so badly but more than that I want people to understand why I am limited in what I can do physically, mentally, and socially so they don’t even need to take a moment to question my motives or go OH OK guess it’s a mom thing. Instead of awkwardly stumbling through what they picture to be my difficult life scenarios through their heads, I want them to just KNOW what I am going through. I need them to give me a firm OK or GOTCHA, YUP been there and leave it at that. But for now maybe they want to try on my sneakers. I wear a size 9. 

A New Car Seat and Other Adventures

     

                                                                            

                                                                        

                                                                                             

This past Saturday, we got Emma a big girl car seat. Yes you heard me, A. BIG. GIRL. CAR. SEAT. Wow! On the way to the store my husband and I commented that the last time we went to pick out a car seat was when Emma wasn’t even born and here we were, going to pick out a car seat with our 8 month old daughter! Crazy I know!

When we had made the big car seat decision in the beginning, we opted for an infant car seat so we could carry her without having to take her in and out of the seat. It was also part of a larger travel system so all you had to do was snap the car seat in the stroller and go. I cannot tell you how many times this arrangement was awesomely awesome. Any time she fell asleep in the car I could take her inside without disturbing her. Any time I needed to run to the store quickly, just click, click and we were off. I hadn’t given much thought to the down side of this arrangement, being that we would need to shell out cash for a car seat down the road. (The first one was an amazing baby shower present from Nana so this was technically our first car seat purchase.)

At this point I am going to pretty much say we found a great convertible car seat that goes up to 70lbs forward facing and we are very pleased with it. The real reason for this post is that going on this trip together as a family to get this car seat was the most fun I have had on a family outing in a long time.

We ended up going to a big Babies R Us in our area. Emma loves to people watch and pretty much visually take in anything she can so she was over the moon to be out shopping with mommy and daddy. That was my excitement, being out on a Saturday with my husband. My husband usually gets one Saturday off work a month and I look forward to that time we get together as a family. It’s tough running errands by myself every Saturday after a full week of work, cooking, cleaning etc.

 Just a simple trip to get a car seat, to have my husband’s opinion, to walk down the aisles together, it was a magical moment. I know it sounds corny but we both LOVE shopping for baby stuff. We are like little kids in a candy store running from item to item marveling at the somewhat useful functionality of each “masterfully crafted” object. We started out looking at car seats but that did not stop us from making a complete 360 lap around the store. We went through the bibs, sippy cups, baby food, baby shoe section, and finally the clothing. We spent almost two hours in the store! (a good part of which was taking our time to carefully inspect each car seat option.) We raced down isles with Emma until she squealed with glee. We stopped and waved at the other families. I was surprised to see probably 10 or so other families there enjoying their Saturday together. It was almost like time stood still for us.

It was love. It was the love of a family sharing time together. Not being rushed by work obligations or exhaustion, not worrying about naps or deadlines. It was just us. And I loved it. 

Tell me about your fun and crazy family outings! 

I Like Chicken, I Like Liver...

                                                                   

I thought I would take Valentine’s Day and stretch out the love over an entire week, so I will be posting stories of love (I promise not too much mushy mush!) all week long, or whenever I find the energy to blog.

What does that have to do with the title of this post? You are asking. Well, this is post is about more of a bittersweet love story that starts 12 years ago in the land of childhood wonder. I have not divulged much information about my immediate family on here and I don’t really plan to, but my family growing up was one of those families that were begging to have a small zoo of pets in their house, but my mom was not really having it. It took years for her to finally fold and let us get a dog, Scruffy, a grand beast (actually small mix bread from the pound.) He was a wonderful dog, but not enough to fill our (my sister, my brother, and my) animal lovin hearts so; we naturally jumped for joy one day when my dad informed us there was a family of kittens born down the street.

We begged and begged to get one and then I do not remember what happened next but I’m pretty sure my mom said no and my dad took us to go get a kitten anyway.  All I know is what my sister CONSTANTLY reminds me of to this very day that I picked out the cat. When we went to go look at the kittens, there were 5 or so, she wanted the all-black one, but I loved the look of the fuzzy gray and white guy. Well somehow I won and we got the gray and white one. This would become important later because we were to find out over the years that his personality was anything but cute and fluffy. He HATED being cuddled or touched for that matter. He was the solitary type, which is fine unless you are a family with three youngsters who want to play with a squishy kitty. And it was never forgotten that I am the one who picked this unlovable creature.

Well the years passed and eventually my sister and I moved out of the house. Every year I would go back to my parent’s house I would comment on how the cat was still kicking. He would usually just wander through the living room on the way to the door to go outside. He was very predictable like that, always coming and going. In his 12 years he never ran away, he never left the yard. He just liked to do what he liked to do and was stuck in his ways.  It was difficult for us because we wanted to show him love and affection through physical touch or sharing a space, and all he wanted really was to be left alone.

On Saturday, Merlin (I named him too) the cat passed away. My sister felt like we never showed him enough love and I told her that he never wanted to be loved that way. Regardless, something else happened, my family came together (well over social media) and took a moment to remember our childhood cat. In those moments my family and I shared the same emotional bond so in a way, the cat gave us back our love. He brought us together. He said thanks for all of those years you let me do my own thing. And that my friends is its own kind of love.

So now I pay tribute to Merlin the cat (had I had more time and help I would have wanted to turn this into a song but it is what it is): 

I didn't want your love like that

I didn't want your love like that

I wanted it on my own terms

Chasing mice and jumping on birds

Cause I like chicken 

And I like liver

I'm just a solitary critter

I didn't want your love like that

I didn't want your love like that

I am a misunderstood cat 

It’s Work Out of the Home Mom Recognition Time

Ah yes, my fellow work out of the home moms holla! I have decided to complete my mommy trilogy posts with a virtual high five to the work out of the home moms.

Hello and welcome to our overly scheduled, grab and go, oh crap I forgot to put the laundry in the drier four days ago life. Ever wonder what it’s like for work at home moms? Well let me walk you through a day in the life:

5:30-5:45am: Wake up make bottles/ get diaper bag packed (if I’m lucky and the baby does not wake up first)

6:00am: Sing Good Morning song/get baby changed/ dressed/ daddy feeds while mommy gets ready; aka run around looking for anything to wear that might be considered acceptable work attire

6:20-6:30am: Load car/ head off / battle weather and unruly drivers without exhibiting road rage in front of impressionable child

6:50am: Drop off baby at daycare – unload food/ label everything/fill out entire page of redundant information on daycare sheet/ give hugs and kisses/ pull self off of child and run to the door before feet turn around to grab child and head for the hills

7:00am: Time to work – attend various meetings/ work on countless spreadsheets

10:00am: Miss baby/ contemplate visiting at daycare then realize leaving her crying due to separation anxiety would be too hard

11:30am: Lunch/ gaze longingly at sunlight/ if remembered to bring book, read book/ if remembered to bring workout clothes go to gym for 20 minutes

1:30ish: Need a break from staring at spreadsheet glance over and see picture of baby/ become nostalgic/ keep glancing at picture/ move picture out of sightline

3:30pm: Work is over/ pick up baby

3:45pm: juggle baby/ diaper bag/ empty bottles/ food containers/ battle weather and rowdy drivers/ hope no car seat meltdowns happen

4:15pm: Get home/ have to use the restroom but have clingy child I missed all day/ contemplate how to multitask my way through that situation/ end up holding it

4:15-5:15pm: Play with baby!

5:15pm: Feed dinner/ hopefully something is already made/ find easily mashable food

5:30pm: Throw used containers in bucket/ get everything ready for bath time

5:35pm: Look for rubber ducky/ try to wad up washcloth to resemble rubber ducky/ give up and rush through bath before rubber ducky disappearance is discovered

5:45-5:50pm: Wrestling match aka: putting pjs on (5 minutes is a conservative estimate for this)

6:00pm: Feed bottle in quiet dark room/ baby pops up after bottle consumption energetic as ever

6:15pm: After observing an eye rub become bold and lay baby down in crib

6:30pm: After a little back and forth baby is asleep/ start dinner/ wash millions of food containers/ bottles/ rushing water reminds me I never used the restroom/ use the restroom

7:00pm: Try to clean a little/ while cleaning spot tv remote, remember dvr is full 

7:30pm: Husband is home/ eat dinner/ blog

9:00- 10:00pm: Pass out after possibly showering/ hope I have clean clothes for tomorrow

10:00pm-5:45am: Baby sporadically wakes up

And that about sums it up. I do the majority of the cleaning and errand running on the weekends along with laying out all of Emma’s outfits for the week, one less thing to have to worry about. Now if only I could do that with my clothes and finally start to meal plan I might feel like I have a tiny hold on things. We shall see if that day ever happens. 

Shout Out to My SAHMs

After looking over my nod to WAHMs I realized that I held them up on my mommy pedestal without mentioning my SAHM peeps. I in no way wanted it to come across like I do not bow down to the awesomeness of SAHMs. I really only have 2 ½ months of stay at home time under my belt, two months of which I was recovering from an unwanted but necessary C-section. So really I have very VERY little true knowledge of what it takes to be at home every day raising my child.

I vaguely remember settling into a daily routine. I do remember needing to get out of the house at least once a day. It was summer time so I was lucky enough to be able to go for walks with Emma. I would get coffee in the morning and we would walk along the bike path to the park and watch the other kids play (see below). 

It was nice to be able to run errands during the week, but that was with a mostly mundane baby. I could not wait for my husband to come home to take over baby duties. It was also nice engaging in some adult conversation too, even if it did involve recounting the number of poopy diapers and how many times I cleaned up spit-up.

I do remember instead of sleeping when the baby slept I would wash everything. I had a cereal napper, as in frequent but brief naps, so when I did get a minute to do something it was rushed. Showers came few and far between. Meals were consumed haphazardly and nights were a marathon of diapers and feedings.

Since my short stay at home stint happened during the summer, we were fortunate enough to get not one, but two major storms that knocked out the power for a week each. No ac with a baby and nowhere to plug in a breast pump was less than ideal. I ended up spending most of that time wherever I could find an establishment with air conditioning and constantly worrying about my milk supply.

But everything I went through seems so small now. Nothing compared to those dedicated moms who forgo lunches that do not involve a food fights and conversations that only involve Disney characters. My position in mommyland is a back and forth battle between envy and relief. Had things worked out differently, had my OB not told me I could not get pregnant, had I been prepared for this adventure, then maybe I would not be sharing a miniscule knowledge of such an admirable life choice. But things worked out like they did and my family’s happy and healthy and I will always have a place in my heart for SAHMs.

Let’s here from you SAHMs! Tell us what it’s really like! I am but a humble little grasshopper. 

10 Things I Love About Being a Mom Right Now

Emma turned eight months old on Friday. I can’t believe how time is flying by. I am trying to hold on and savor every second of this beautiful journey. Don’t get me wrong there have been and will be challenges. Believe me, I have my moments of pure frustration, guilt, and uncertainty. The other day, as I was pulling up to drop Emma off at daycare, I realized something, there are a lot of reasons I love being a mom at this exact moment. So through all the diaper explosions, fussy bedtimes, and trips back home to get forgotten bottles, I present to you the 10 things I love about being a mom right now:

1.     My child has unconditional love for me.

Emma doesn’t care what kind of job I have or how much money I make. She doesn’t mind if I look a bit disheveled or dress her in a funny outfit. She goes with it. She looks to me as a source of comfort and love and that is by far the easiest thing anyone can ask for when they give all of their love in return.

2.     She finds joy in everything – She smiles and laughs so easily. Just the smallest thing excites her. She exudes light and joy.

3.     Other Mothers – Even though there are many different opinions out there that sometimes lead to “heated discussions” I am constantly amazed at the grace, wit, strength and willingness to help I see everyday. Whether it’s the collective conscious internet moms or my few close mom guru friends, I hope one day I am worthy of being a part of such a great community of support.

4.     People admiring my child – Yes, I know it’s a bit vain but who wouldn’t love someone coming up to you and saying how cute your kids is! Yeah that’s right those are half of my genes at work!

5.     I get to relive my childhood – I love being able to act goofy and squeal and play with toys. Little do most people know that I would love to being doing those things anyway!

6.     More bonding time with family – Since I’ve had Emma it is a great excuse to get together with family. I see my mom now almost every Saturday while my husband is at work. Just the other day my uncle stopped by to say hi to the baby. And I even get my sister to drive from far away to babysit. A real win if you ask me!

7.     I get to see things through a new perspective /I get to enjoy the little things – Everything is new and wondrous to Emma. Even with the smallest objects she takes her time to really study and examine them. A lot of what she takes in I would simply walk by or not give a second look, but she knows to take everything and really appreciate it.

8.     Newfound confidence in myself – So far I have successfully raised a healthy, happy 8 month old who is growing and learning every day. That makes me feel good. I’m actually doing it!  Also, I just carried a diaper bag and a car seat with a 20 lb baby through the rain. I am one badass mother!

9.     Newfound skills/ learning – I know how to spot illnesses I never knew existed, I can multitask like a pro, I actually am working on becoming a good cook, and the proof is in this blog; I am learning to recognize my thoughts and feelings and express them through writing.

10.  Get inspiration for wonderful things – This blog would not exist if not for my little. I am a creative and crafty person by nature. Having a baby is a perfect way for me to flex my artistic muscles. I made my own matching Halloween costume this year. I made curtains and reupholstered the cushions on the rocking chair. I have plans for creating an activity center in Emma’s room and I am already starting to work on the intricacies of her first birthday party!

All in all there really is nothing like motherhood. It is exhausting but at the end of the day I am grateful I get to have this experience in my life.

Are you loving motherhood right now? Even if you are going through a tough time; teething, sleep regression, terrible twos, colic; I know it gets tough but try to find the goodness in every situation. It’s better than being negative all the time. 

Maternity Leave: An Overlooked Obstacle

So far on this blog I have not brought up my political beliefs or anything controversial. This requires political support and actually taking some time out of your day to make it happen.

Everyone has a mother and every mother needs time to recover and bond with her baby after childbirth. Every mother deserves to enjoy that time with her child and not have to stress out about how she is going to financially support her new family. This is an issue that goes beyond mother and child it includes the wellbeing of families and even outside individuals.

How are we all connected and affected by this one issue? Well let me explain; I ended up having an unplanned pregnancy, the details of which I will share in a later post. For now, all you need to know is that I ended up getting pregnant a mere 3 months after starting a new job.  Having not planned for it, I suddenly found myself without a solid foundation for how I was going to make it through three months with no income. Depending on your situation, there are programs and support to assist you during maternity leave. The problem is not everyone qualifies for them and even if you do, the support is minimal and temporary. My situation did not allow for any outside help. I had to rely on my place of employment to make it through my maternity leave. Luckily for me, they offered several options that would allow me to get enough leave for two and a half months of pay. There was a catch. In doing so, I would be advanced sick days that I would have to pay back.

Despite all of that I still felt very fortunate to be able to have that option. Not many people are so fortunate as I was. Still with my situation, I was unable to get the full three months off with pay and now, months later I am still paying back the leave I used while I was out. This means whenever Emma gets sick, I have to use my regular vacation time to take off to be with her.

We got into a situation over the last few months where our entire family was sick on and off for a month and a half. That left me with no time to take off for myself when I became ill. I had no choice, I had to go to work sick. Going to work sick is never what anyone wants to do. Here I was at work, sick as a dog with no leave and people were giving me the evil eye. I didn’t have time to stop every person to explain to them that had there been mandated paid maternity leave that my germs and me would be at home.

My next dilemma is now I have gone over a year without a real vacation. As any mother knows, even a family vacation is still a vacation, a chance to recharge, and it looks like I won’t be taking one of those for a while. I am not trying to use this post to complain about my petty vacation woes, but rather to solicit support for some great legislation. Moms, dads, women, men, young, old, co-workers, and friends, look to your mothers, look to future mothers. Give them the support they need because trust me being a mom has enough of it’s own challenges. One less benefits everyone.

Please support moms! Sign this petition before 2/28!!! Pass it on!

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/mandate-paid-maternity-leave/MtHK02QF