momAgenda Blog

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

January 3, 2010 2:01 PM

Today is a special day. One of the most wonderful days of the year. Because today, my friends, is the day before SCHOOL STARTS AGAIN and LARRY AND I GO BACK TO WORK!
We have been home with no school or work since a couple of days before Christmas. We had been planning a trip to London for a week after Christmas, but decided at the last minute that the stress of the holidays combined with the stress of planning a week in London with 4 kids was too much for us.
Let me tell you something. A week in London with 4 kids would have been A CAKE WALK compared to the past several weeks at home with my 4 kids and husband.
I will start with my husband. Don't get me wrong, I love the man, but it turns out that when I am around, he turns into the most helpless creature on earth, besides my 4 kids. He is incapable of doing ANYTHING without my assistance. I really don't get it. When he is at work -- WHICH IS USUALLY ABOUT 12-14 HOURS PER DAY by the way -- I accomplish all these tasks and more BY MYSELF. I do the laundry, take out the garbage, prepare meals, take care of the kids, help with homework, and generally manage to run this household pretty smoothly.
And Larry is not exactly a helpless creature. On the contrary, he has a successful career and is highly respected in his place of employment (at least that's what he tells me).
And yet, when he is home with me, he is incapable of completing a task as simple as throwing old food in the garbage. Honest... he actually asked me to help him. He also sometimes asks me where we keep certain items in the house, such as the frying pan (no I am not kidding).
Fortunately, Larry does have redeeming qualities, such as his ability to figure out how to work the remote control and his ability to figure out how to put together the star wars legos, so I will end my rant by saying I look forward to his return to work so that we can go back to normal, with me doing everything around here myself.
Now to my kids, who I love more than life itself, but being home for this long with no structure has not been good for anybody. We are all a little bored, and when the kids get bored, they get cranky, and when they get cranky, I get cranky, and then, well, it's not pretty. Just as my husband and I have had a bit too much togetherness, my kids are really sick of each other and have basically been at each others throats for most of this vacation.
So I look forward with great joy to tomorrow, at which time Larry will leave at 7:30 am, and I will drop off the kids at school at 8:30 am, and then I will go for a run, and then I will go to work. The old routine. It has NEVER looked so appealing.