This was one of those weekends. Lots of time alone with the kid, with little help to be found. My wife actually got to go to SXSW, and she had the “thrill of her time.” She works hard, she deserves it. But knowing that is little consolation when the kid won’t put on her pajamas, or eat, or stop screaming. Like Tina Fey said in the movie Date Night, about the pain of getting the kids ready for bed: “All of a sudden, it’s a big surprise that we have to put pajamas on every night!” There will be a follow-up SXSW post, about all the fun my wife had and why it was worth it. This one, however, will be from my point of view. It’s the not-so-fun post.
What’s that siren I hear? Oh yeah, that’s the whambulance.
My wife’s friend, who works for a major tech company, came to town to get ready for the events she was working on at “South-By.” She had free time Friday, so my wife left work to go and join her for some SXSW hijinks. This left me alone with the kid for all of Friday, so it was another 12 hour day for me without a break. Now, I don’t really mind being left out of things. I might be a little jealous, but I’ll get over it. However, since my wife did a similar thing like this last year, sometimes it can make a guy feel a little like Cinderella—always doing chores and never getting to go to the ball. I was more upset because they stayed late to watch more bands on Friday, and thus got stuck in traffic trying to get out of downtown. Not knowing what was going on, I didn’t know if I should make dinner for the kid or not. I was trying to decide as it got later and later. Then I get a call, “I don’t know if you guys ate already or not, I assume you did because of the time.” Whoops, I guess I should have made dinner after all. My wife’s friend was going to stay over, so I had spent all day doing laundry and cleaning the house to to get ready for our guest. A little late night Rock Band karaoke kind of made up for it. Nevertheless, it was a long day indeed.
Then Saturday, they left in the afternoon for more shows and events. I stayed behind to hold down the fort. Being on kid duty, I had to do the whole nightly routine by myself. So a long day on Friday turned into a long weekend.
Well, it appears the whambulance has reached it’s destination. You may be thinking, “Hey, you’re forgetting, Cinderella did get to go to the ball in the end. She got some kick ass glass slippers and got the prince.” Well, I’m still waiting for my big moment. Although when it comes, I don’t really need a prince … but I could go for some glass slippers. I’ll sell ’em on EBAY!
Stay tuned for the dissenting opinion to this rant, and for the shenanigans that really went down at SXSW this year.
jeffsilvey.com 
Well, Jeff, perhaps I love reading your blogg so much because I like to hear someone else say the things that I seem to think most of the time. I, too, get the, “why can’t I’s” and “I would love to do that’s” a lot. For me, this weekend was long, long, long, as well. See, as a single parent, I get to experience much of what you go through, but the breaks–well, they don’t come often. Even when it is her dad’s turn to have her for a weekend I spend Friday night driving and Sunday afternoon driving only to have Saturday to try to catch everything up for the two weeks prior.
I decided it would be best to take my lil’ one down to Oxnard to visit her Auntie Sue this weekend so I could deal with my ever-so-leaking roof without distraction. Let’s see, Maycee’s room is flooded…most of her stuff is in the master bedroom, she’s therefore sleeping in my room, and oh ya, I’m sleeping on a single mattress on the floor of the living room. ANNNNNND…..it’s pouring, freeking, raining, storming, wind howling all weekend long. We were talking about sacrifices on another blogg, right?
So, the brilliant idea of taking Maycee to a friends so I could get my big “break” turned out to be 12 long hours of down and backs mixed with more leaking roof stories that led me to spend 4 hours of my Saturday moving the rest of Maycee’s books and such out of the lake in her bedroom, moving plastic to cover every inch of the floor, cleaning up debrix…and making sure nothing electrical was going to get watered down. In order to feel better I watch the news…that way I can put my own gripes into perspective.
And, MY whambulance arrived when I picked Maycee up Sunday in Oxnard to find out she had been allowed to stay up until midnight Saturday night. Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Who pays for that? You guessed it…Cinderella. Hang in there…you and Aim both work hard, so it’s all about finding balance and asking for it when you can.
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I feel your pain being the stay-at-home king of Washington State. Hope you TAKE a little time each week for yourself.
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Thanks, Mitch. I take it when I can. Gotta recharge the batteries, so to speak.
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