Friday, May 30, 2014

What do you do all day?

I was speechless when I was asked this question a few years ago (some people will tell you that doesn’t happen very often).  Ummm….
“I sit on the couch and eat chocolate all day.”  
Chuckles from everyone at the table; however, one person there was a little concerned about this conversation and let my husband know what was happening.  He told her I could handle it.
I have not been asked this question before, so I went with the easy answer of saying, “I homeschool S.”
“I know, but what do you do all day?”
How to answer this question?  Do I tell this person how many hours I spend homeschooling my child? Does this person have any idea how much of my day/my life has been devoted to this one child helping him to be all he can be despite his challenges with Cerebral Palsy (CP)? Does this person have any idea what it is like to parent a child who has ADD and CP along with other medical issues? Does this person realize I have to balance my time between this son and my other son? Does this person realize that I do enjoy spending time with my husband? Does this person realize how much my husband travels? Does this person realize I am: balancing a public school schedule and a homeschool schedule, scheduling appointments for both children, ensuring that everyone has the medication that they need and it hasn’t run out, making sure they both get to their extracurricular activities and church activities, making sure homework is done, making sure everyone has clean clothes, buying groceries, attempting to clean the house, and doing whatever else I can to make sure we all get through life? Does this person realize that I need to get through all of these things so I can get to what I enjoy which is just spending time with my family-laughing, playing games, being together?
I sat there, contemplated the question, and decided that this person probably would not grasp what my life is like.  My very well thought out response was , “This month I took these two children to 17 doctor’s appointments.  That is what I do all day.”
Yeah, I’m a mom.  That is what I do all day except when I’m on the couch with chocolate.