January held its fair share of snowy days for those of us in the valley. Our daughter is still in preschool, so we’re usually lucky that our childcare center doesn’t close in bad weather. Then a snowstorm hit and we found ourselves at home for three days in the middle of the week in the middle of January. At first, my husband and I traded off working and watching our daughter.
I’m lucky that my job can be done remotely. His job can as well, but not as easily. We definitely got into some gripes with each other while we were figuring out how to work this new schedule of constant togetherness, parenting, and working from home. And then, as you’ll find is a common theme in my posts…it hit me.
I don’t want to look back on this time and wish I’d done it differently.
Our girl will only be this age for a little while longer. In the coming months we’ve got Kindergarten registration, completion of preschool, and many unknown adventures to come. It won’t matter if I answered that last email today, tonight or tomorrow. It can wait. I understand that I’m in a very privileged position. I don’t work as an Emergency Room nurse, or a Police Officer, or any other job that doesn’t allow or looks down upon calling in sick due to bad weather.
That being said, the “working woman” in me doesn’t like feeling like I’m not fulfilling my duties just because the day’s schedule is a little wonky. Day 1 was spent mentally juggling and always thinking I was dropping one of the many balls I was trying to keep in the air. But by the afternoon of day 2, I started letting up on work. Our daughter fell asleep on the couch and I ended up following suit. We both slept for three solid hours. It was much needed and much appreciated.
As day 3 started, I focused on spending time with our girl, which also allowed my husband to get some work done. Don’t get me wrong; he doesn’t want to miss this special time with our daughter either, but we all know that parenting guilt is totally different when it comes to Moms and Dads. The rest of the day was spent lounging around, playing in the snow, and curling up on the sofa in front of a warm fire to watch Harry Potter. We may not have made all of our snow days into slow days, but it’s a start.
This year I am continuing to work on shifting my priorities in regards to parenting and the time I spend with my family.
I respect my daughter as the little person that she is becoming, and she deserves for me to show her that by paying attention to her. I am trying to extend this to other things that distract me or cause me to feel like my attention is divided…mainly, my phone. I am doing my best to continue this “snow day, slow day” approach by turning my phone off upon arriving home or shortly thereafter and ensuring my family time is priority number one.
