Yay voting!

Yay shiny new tooth!

Nora, the most recent book that I read that was just curl up on the comfy couch with a beverage and never want to stop was The Thirteenth Tale: A Novel by Diane Setterfield. It was very booky. The main character grew up in a bookstore. It was a very pleasant read.

It's starting to become a battle between me & DH as to who is more tired at the end of the day. I understand his need to come home and chill after work. I know he wants to eat dinner and watch Pardon the Interruption without interruptions.

But, Dude. Been up with toddlers for longer than he's been at work. And he gets to go to the bathroom in privacy so I really think I win and should get a break when he gets home.

Today the kids tag teamed me RIGHT before we had to leave to take Owen to school. I went upstairs to get socks for both of them and Liv climbed the counter and turned the faucet, flooding the counter and getting her clothes wet. When I went upstairs to get her dry clothes, Owen pulled down his pants and peed in the kitchen floor. Then I had to get them both redressed, boots & coats on and get them in the van to leave in less than 10 minutes resulting in much yelling and stress on my part.

t /whinging

I'm so sorry, but I just had to laugh. Not at the DH part, but the kids part, and even there I'm very sympathetic, and I know I would be just as upset if I were in your shoes, but, but...

I'm so sorry, but I just had to laugh. Not at the DH part, but the kids part, and even there I'm very sympathetic, and I know I would be just as upset if I were in your shoes, but, but...

No! It's totally funny. It's just two adults wrangling over who's most exhausted is down right silly. I always try to qualify my position with stuff like "I got pooped on today!" or something to that effect.

{{Cash}} DH and I have always worked together so we often through the years had to switch off parenting and office tasks. We both know exactly how exhausting children can be, and how stressful customers can be. Bottom line, children are tougher because you can't use the same handling techniques with them.

Do you have scheduled down time? Dude's lucky you don't meet him in the driveway every day when he gets home. "Have fun dear, see ya in an hour or so."

Do you have scheduled down time? Dude's lucky you don't meet him in the driveway every day when he gets home. "Have fun dear, see ya in an hour or so."

It's never been scheduled, per se. Some days, I'm totally fine. Some days, NSM. I'm tempted to do the driveway thing!

Tonight he hedged when I said I wanted to go upstairs and hide in the bedroom, saying he was "tired, too." But then he reconsidered because the "kids behave better when I'm not around." (Which is sort of true.) So I'm taking an hour to do some odds and ends.

{{{Cash}}}

I like the idea of scheduled downtime. It's different for us because we both work, but it's an ongoing process of negotiation.

Cash, my mom says there were days my dad walked in, and she handed him my bother (he was a baby, I was three) and locked herself in the bathroom without a word.

I've done both -- home with kids and working full-time (with kids), and hands down, home with kids is harder. At least at work you can tune out for a few minutes, or let voice mail pick up, and even while commuting you can turn your brain off for a bit, knowing a two-year-old is not going to be demanding a juice box or, you know, peeing on the floor.

I think scheduling is a grand idea -- that way even if it wasn't scheduled exactly when you needed it - you'd know when your next break was going to be. Kids do not come with 15 minute breaks or with a lunch break

ION, my workplace is threatening to implode. I'm mostly a spectator, but there's some major conflict going on between the new director and most of the staff with a few subsidiary conflicts here and there. Tomorrow we're having a two-hour meeting of all the permanent staff, headed by the divisional administrator under whose umbrella the department falls, to try to iron things out. And I'm expecting it to be explosive.

It's not a good atmosphere there, and I'm wondering if it's time for me to update my resume and start actively looking. I don't think my position is threatened--it's been explicitly stated that I'm doing a great job, especially given how little orientation and support I received when I came on board. But it's just not a good place to be, and I wouldn't be surprised if we have MASSIVE turnover in the next few months, enough to threaten the stability of our program.

Sigh. I was really hoping when I took this job that it would be It, if not the last job I took before getting published and (hopefully) getting in a position to switch to a part-time day job, at least a place where I could stay for 4-5 years and have some stability and contentment in my work life for a change. But lately it's been all instability and discontent, and I don't see it improving in the short term. A two-hour meeting just isn't going to fix things, you know?