I worked HARD today. Oh sure, you could glibly say that a mother’s work is never done, or that all moms are working moms, or that every day is one in which a mother works hard. And all that would be true.

The nice thing about the mom gig, in my opinion, is that often it doesn’t feel like work to me. I sure love my kids. I love hanging out with them, I love sharing food and conversation with them. They are lovely (if sometimes demanding) companions, and they have a great sense of humor, and (mostly, when they’re not too embarrassed) appreciate the bizarre alien that is their mother.

But I digress. I wanted to talk about how hard I worked today. Oh, but one more digression, lest I manage to alienate (I did say I was an alien, didn’t I?) any menfolk reading my blog. Dads work hard too, all that, etc. I know you do. Hang in there, you will make it through your day too. It’s hard. Life is hard. Parenting is hard. Working inside of, outside of, near or next to, home or not home, whatever you do… I validate you. Really I do. But hey, I digress. Like I said before. (Have I mentioned lately what an alien I can be sometimes?) FREAKISH POST HERE YIKES

…………

Where.

Was.

I?

—————- OH YEAH—————————-

Right. Bitching, er, sharing about how hard I worked today. OKAY THEN.

Today I ran a zoo childcare arrangement which a) required no pre-registration, b) was open to any of the 70 or so kids who go to the school where I teach, which I should mention c) includes children ages 5 to 14. Any of these kids is allowed to arrive any time between 8:30 AM and whenever they feel like it, and the program runs until 6 PM. I was on duty all this time, with no break, no adult assistance, and, it turned out, no more than 15 kids to look after at any given time.

The tricky bit was how the group kept changing. This being a day in which kids are meeting with their teachers (conferences) and therefore dropping in and then wandering off from the group. Meanwhile I’m there trying to make sure nobody hurts anybody, or cries, or pulls out a container of marbles and flings them all around the room, or calls someone a hurtful name and then gets kicked for it, or any number of annoying things. These are just examples from the FIRST HALF HOUR.

Ok, maybe I am exaggerating just a little bit.

But the fact remains that I was THE ONE PERSON IN CHARGE for nine and a half hours straight with no breaks and constantly supervising children who need this or that or the next thing. Pann, they clamored, I need you to thread my needle (I’d set up embroidery hoops for one activity), Pann, they yodeled, when’s snack? Pann, they gargled, So-and-So’s looking at me funny! No I’m not! Yes You ARE! Pann! Pann! Pann! Pann!

And NOT ONCE did I YELL! And certainly I never even once said “EVERYONE PLEASE SHUT THE FUCK UP!” I AM THE VERY PORTRAIT OF SELF RESTRAINT!!!!!

And tomorrow, I get to do it all again.

Have I told you lately how much I LOOOVE teaching!? Oh, I really do. REALLY. I am not kidding or being sarcastic. But some days … are much harder than others. Tomorrow the art teacher has offered to step in for me so that I can get a quick breather at some point. So there’s that!

Looking forward to the weekend… forecast is for rain, rain, rain. Think maybe I’ll sleep in??

EDITED …

Oh yeah, I forgot… early in the day I DID get a brief break from teaching in order to attend my own child’s teacher conference. Just to be fair, thought I should disclaim…..