In any given day, I
- am teaching. This semester I am teaching the 18th different course I have taught in the last 20 years, in consumer behavior, in the marketing/management department. I have two sections of 33 students in each. I teach in the communication department at a second university where I have been for the last 5 years.
- writing my dissertation (although this seems to be on the back burner more than front in my thoughts). I am in the "brain explosion" phase as I try to take my analysis and figure out what it means. I have bits and pieces of insight, but now I'm trying to pull it all together to make sense out of it.
- teaching my son to drive (as he does not want to drive with his father who makes him nervous and my husband does not to drive with my son who makes him nervous). Of course, my son makes me nervous also, but I have learned how to appear calm and respond to his mistakes with gentle instruction so he doesn't panic and drive into a tree or another car!
- attending soccer games, working concession for the team, or picking my son up from soccer practice.
- driving my son and/or daughter to the school dance, football game, or the store to pick up something for school
- driving my daughter to dance class
- meeting with or communicating with one or both of my children's teachers about some issue with school
- or correcting papers, writing papers, or checking my emails
Occasionally about 3-4 times a month, I am checking in with my mother. But I have to prepare myself for those calls to my 83 year old mother, as I still revert back to the old triggers from my childhood.
This of course is in addition to the regular house hold chores of cooking (with the exception of soccer night games, the whole family eats together, but I cook dinner every night whether we eat together or not), grocery shopping, cleaning, wash, dishes, and helping out with the occasional homework question.
I am tired! I know I am not the only one in this position (at least I don't have to run my own business like Karyn Romeis, now are my children totally dependent on me like Janet Clarey). But I do want to apologize now if my blogging is a bit on and off again in the next few months.
4 comments:
You vividly describe the tug of war between embracing life long learning and dealing with the inevitable time consuming often mundane daily responsibilities. My Mom tried to teach me to drive when I was 21. I took the wheel of a 1967 Parisienne tank passed down to my family from my grandfather. I can still picture her legs on the dashboard bracing for the potential impact with an inconveniently placed bus stop. After that bonding experience I offered to pay for a couple of professional lessons.
Yes, and this was written before we all came down with the H1N1 flu!!
While my son does take driving lessons, his instructor has an emergency break he can use when he drives too close to the landmarks. I think both your mother and I would be much more relaxed if we had had one of those features.
Yes, a most busy regimen you face on many days as energized mother and teacher. I sense there was some therapy in expressing your feelings here, one positive aspect of an online journal.
True Paul. Since my life seems to be pieced out into different spaces, it feels good to put all I do into one place and to realize there's a reason I'm tired! Until I wrote it all down, I didn't realize quite how much I do in a given day. Besides, now I can show it to my kids when they ask WHY I can't do something.
Post a Comment