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I knew going into the month of October it was going to be a busy month. My big work conference is next week (10 Zoom workshops in 5 days) plus this week is my Hubs big work conference. His is in CA so he flew out on Saturday (3 days ago) and wont be back until Saturday (in 4 days) which means I am solo parenting for the week. The solo parenting 1 plus all the prep work for my big event was very daunting. But so far everyone is fed, no one is dead and meltdowns have been minimal.
The big thing that has been helping that I have actually asked other people for help. Roommate now cooks dinner both Saturday and Sunday night which is amazing to have 2 days of not having to come up with a meal idea, prep for it and cook it. Plus Monday we had dinner with my parents (cause they watch the baby on Monday) So I would have to come to their house in the evening anyway. On Wednesday I am doing to same thing at my in-laws house. So that takes care of 4 of the 7 dinners. Breakfast is cereal at home for the boy and I can either pack his lunch or have him buy a school lunch (yay being able to prepay for meals online). And I always surprises me how much just having the meals planned out helps the rest. But you got to eat, so I guess it is really a big thing.
The rest of it can be handled by planning and doing my best managing my time. This week in the mornings, I not only get the kiddo up, dressed, ready for school but I also had to get the baby up and packed up to do the school drop out. Not hard per se, but I had to manage timing of when to get the baby up to make sure he could be fed and changed before getting lugged into the car. But I did it. And the kiddo was not late.
Plus I have run this work conference for the last 6 years, and the last 2 years were fully virtual so I have a better idea of how to spread out the prep tasks and I am right on schedule. So that feels good. Plus my boss is in town this week and he is very happy with me and continuing to work with me and has told me how important I am and any plans going forward will include me (if I want to stay) so that just feels good.
I will say one of the unexpected things about having hubs out of town, is that because I have to do all the chores I can get them done when I think they should get done. When he is home he will do chores just on a very different timeline then me which can be frustrating (but I have worked on communicating when I need something done by so that at least I don't have to wait around (to much) for him to do something). Which means that we have gotten to sink zero at least twice so far since Saturday. We will see how I feel after a few more days of solo parenting.
1: I use solo parenting (vs single parenting) for this because I still have a partner, they are just unavailable for the physical parenting side right now. I am still able to reach out to them for emotional support, as a sounding board, and obviously I still have the benefits of two incomes. Plus I know that this is just a temporary thing, hubs will be back and I will get a break. Unlike single parenting which doesn't have all of these benefits and I wish I could give all single parents a hug, a weekend alone and someone to come doing some household chores so they don't have to do it all.
The big thing that has been helping that I have actually asked other people for help. Roommate now cooks dinner both Saturday and Sunday night which is amazing to have 2 days of not having to come up with a meal idea, prep for it and cook it. Plus Monday we had dinner with my parents (cause they watch the baby on Monday) So I would have to come to their house in the evening anyway. On Wednesday I am doing to same thing at my in-laws house. So that takes care of 4 of the 7 dinners. Breakfast is cereal at home for the boy and I can either pack his lunch or have him buy a school lunch (yay being able to prepay for meals online). And I always surprises me how much just having the meals planned out helps the rest. But you got to eat, so I guess it is really a big thing.
The rest of it can be handled by planning and doing my best managing my time. This week in the mornings, I not only get the kiddo up, dressed, ready for school but I also had to get the baby up and packed up to do the school drop out. Not hard per se, but I had to manage timing of when to get the baby up to make sure he could be fed and changed before getting lugged into the car. But I did it. And the kiddo was not late.
Plus I have run this work conference for the last 6 years, and the last 2 years were fully virtual so I have a better idea of how to spread out the prep tasks and I am right on schedule. So that feels good. Plus my boss is in town this week and he is very happy with me and continuing to work with me and has told me how important I am and any plans going forward will include me (if I want to stay) so that just feels good.
I will say one of the unexpected things about having hubs out of town, is that because I have to do all the chores I can get them done when I think they should get done. When he is home he will do chores just on a very different timeline then me which can be frustrating (but I have worked on communicating when I need something done by so that at least I don't have to wait around (to much) for him to do something). Which means that we have gotten to sink zero at least twice so far since Saturday. We will see how I feel after a few more days of solo parenting.
1: I use solo parenting (vs single parenting) for this because I still have a partner, they are just unavailable for the physical parenting side right now. I am still able to reach out to them for emotional support, as a sounding board, and obviously I still have the benefits of two incomes. Plus I know that this is just a temporary thing, hubs will be back and I will get a break. Unlike single parenting which doesn't have all of these benefits and I wish I could give all single parents a hug, a weekend alone and someone to come doing some household chores so they don't have to do it all.
