The husband is on a long business trip (2 weeks!!!!) and I'm really struggling after the first week. Firstly there's something strange about my body's reaction to the knowledge that I am alone and solely responsible for the kids for the next 3 days/1 week/2 weeks. The last time the husband was out for 4 days I got a severe stomach upset on one of the nights, so bad that I wanted to faint. I somehow held it together till bed time and collapsed in bed. The next morning i was fine. Of course i haven't got a stomach ache before or since.
And then today. I woke up with a headache but i thought it would be cured by 3 coffees. I had slept enough - from 10:45 last night till 8 this morning, only interrupted a couple of times by A (can you believe it she's nearly 2 and still wakes up so often and cries in the night! poetic justice for having S who slept through the night from 8 months onwards) and thought the headache would go away. Bad mistake. I had taken S (and A of course) for a trial ballet class and the headache got worse and worse during the class. And after the class we did some grocery shopping and then S wanted to play in the snow and by the time we were ready to leave myhead was splitting, I was feeling nauseas and my hands were shaking. I prayed to all the Gods to help me drive back home safely. Somehow made it home where I put the TV on, put the kids in front of it, took a Saradon and told S to look after A and not trouble me for 15 mins. I was not actually much better after 15 mins but the kids lunch had to be prepared and A had to be fed and I somehow had to get it done.
I'm really missing the hubby this time. Weekdays are somehow manageable with the kids school and their activities. Monday and Thursday I have my German class. Thursday is the children's playgroup in the afternoon and Friday is S swimming class. About once a week we go over to S friend's house for a playdate or they come over. So the days pass by quickly.
But the weekends are a different story. I don't like to trouble friends and intrude on their family time (here everyone likes to spend weekends only with family) so I need to plan activities for the kids alone. Luckily this time, S friend's dad is also out of town on Sunday so me and the other mom are planning to catch up with the girls for an early dinner. But today i felt quite out of it when saw that most of the other families all my friends were either in the mountains skiing, or in neighbouring France/Germany. Facebook damn you! And i am not driving alone into the mountains with these two brats!
Anyway coming back to the main point of this post. Really i don't know how single parents manage. To bring up kids alone itself is a huge challenge. And then work on top of it? Which means that the half an hour you get free in a day after doing all the housework and looking after the kids you're probably checking your BB to see if anything urgent has come up. I am struggling to manage alone for 2 weeks and people do it their whole life!
1 comment:
I think if you are a single parent, then you probably set a routine based on just you (That is not to say that it seems like an awful lot more work than shared parenting). But when you have to change the routine and suddenly carry the load of two people it becomes tougher. Good to see you are doing ok!
Post a Comment