The diary of a working mommy....

Ok, this is about the woes of being a working mommy. Now before other mommies who work at home abuse me, I want to make myself clear that what I meant was 'mommies who work both inside home and outside home'. And again it filters to those with no help like nannies, maids or even other family members. (Un)fortunately I belong to that category. And it has been one month since I resumed work. Working full-time, 5days a week, 8 hrs a day(in office), coming back and resuming house-work for another 4 hrs, till I drop down to bed is my routine now. It seems funny, but I get most of my free time in my office. ☺☺☺☺

First phase aka ..and it starts...:

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My day starts with alarm going off at 7 am. Half asleep, I try to dress myself and again with that half finished (missing one shoe, one earring, uncombed hair) I run to her crib in next room and try to wake up my 10 mth old wobbler. After 10 mts of daring attempts(sometimes I have to use cold wipes on her eyes!), and another 20 mts of screaming I get thru the process of changing her, wiping last night's milk from her face , dressing her and mainly trying to calm her to avoid my nervous breakdown. Once she is setlled in her swing with her 'monkey', i run to pack up her 'school' bag aka the-supplies-for-creche-bag.

I run thru the message-for-parents section in their book, and try to sort out what all things to be stuffed into it. My list will be :

1. 1 powder dispenser with 4 spoons of Aptamil in 3 sections.


2. 4 ounces of pre-boiled water in 3 separate bottles. (the ratio is 1 spoon: 1 ounce)


3. 2 pairs of spare clothes (in case she poops on her clothes, which happens !).


4. A towel,


5. her jacket,


6. 2 pairs of socks,


7. her soother in a clip, (she takes her anger on it, by throwing it away)


8. 1 bottle of Petits Filous in strawberry flavor(ok, I had trouble in pronouncing it, so here *** http://www.petitsfilous.co.uk/index.php?page=how%20to%20say%20Petits%20Filous&titleID=5&sectionID=1 ***


9.  10 nappies,


10. 1 pkt baby wipes


11. 2 gloves and a cap (knitted), in case they take her outside at 8 deg C! (blame the Irish weather!)


12. her Barney (if not, it is enough for her to kick up a storm).

Then I check my bag; laptop, phone, purse and keys- that's all there. I go back to finish my half-dressed state. Still my left shoe is no where to be seen(must be under some bed). I wash my face in a hurry while talking to my wobbler as she starts screaming, and there goes my left earring thru the drain. Fine, now I have to throw its pair, even if I find it.

Second phase aka Taxiiiiiiiiiiii

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My day in office starts with a meeting with my manager at 9:30 am, everyday.(i always wondered why the hell didn't they choose 10 - 10:30am, when I found out that I am the only female in my team. That's what you get for being  a mother!). I don't remember attending the meeting without panting (like a dog) after my marathon-session to meeting room. But anyway, luckily I manage to reach there, in my road-runner mode. If my husband has meetings before me, its a cabbie day for us(me and my wobbler). With my expired motor insurance and tax, I cant drive my car till the end of May. But on second thoughts that would have got me a speeding fine!!!!.

Iif I am lucky, the cabbie turns out  within 7-8 minutes.But then what happens is that he will be wandering inside the residential area  looking for my house number. I run out and frantically waves at him. If he spots me, good, else its another precious 4 minutes wasted.

Now I become the moving coat-hanger. My cranky wobbler and her monkey on my left hip, her bag on my right shoulder, my laptop bag on my right hand, and I am ready to go. Somehow I lock the house, throw the keys somewhere in my bag (which always go missing, after that) and by the time, seeing me over-loaded, the nice cabbie would have mostly opened the door for me.I must say that one day her bottle fell down and rolled under the cab and the poor man has to crawl all the way under his cab, to get it back for me. He didn't want to run over it. The nice man again helps me with the bags, while I get inside with the whimpering wobbler who sensed that she is going to creche.

Leaving her in the creche is long enough for another story. But in few words it would be like, her lips curling down, her eyes brimming, and she holding me tight while the lady over there tries to separate her from me. Now the full screaming starts and when I say 'bye', I get her trademark cold stare thru tears!

Update-->Now she has stopped fighting and seems willingly accepted her life with me!

Now, back inside cab, i check if I have my purse as I have to pay him(one day i even forgot that. Thank God for nice colleagues!). It is there. Now where are my keys? I toss everything and find my keys in some lonesome part of my bag. Pheww...and now I sit back and sigh. The cabbie look at me thru the mirror and says 'Tough day, love?'. I smile..'it is like this, everyday'.

I must say these cabbies are really nice when they see my morning marathon session. Till now, every cabbie who picked me, has charged me 2-3 euros less than what shows up in the meter saying ' That's alright, love..you had a tough morning'

.........and thus my another day starts at office....

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The third and the nerve racking session starts at 5pm..but even thinking about it, gives me high blood pressure, and with my high cholesterol, it is not at all good for my heart!!

...................AND, now at 5am, when I see her sleeping peacefully beside me, i feel IT IS ALL WORTH IT, AND I WOULDN'T WANT TO CHANGE A THING OF IT FOR THE WORLD!

♥♥♥JUST the simple pleasure of being a mother♥♥♥.

dedicated to all working moms(living&dead) in this planet   !!!

A mommy note on Mothering Day-month!

29 February 2012 at 11:06:

On the first day of this Mothers day month(which I wasnt aware until I saw those cards on display!)

I must say ,that , with every of my single ‘mothering’ experience for the first time,

I am ermmmmm...happy? ..thrilled?...stressed?....exhausted?...had numerous break-downs?... all of the above?... or just simple plain ‘enlightened’?

Yes exactly. Thats what I feel. All of the above and more and mostly enlightened in a thousand number of ways. And though I think there are going to be many more in the future , the best and probably the most brilliant enlightenment I had, was just a day before.

Yes, mommies, the thing we always...always..always do, and which never ever should have been done. Putting yourself far far away...err...almost to nothing.

Now back to me. I was never ever stayed at home for more than a few months in my life. Not even ,those days when  I started learning alphabets. And here , it is going to be almost a year since I have been a 100% stay-at-home mom. It is so easy to type that line and just looking at my clock which shows 4am, and wondering when my 8 mth old would wake up screaming, I honestly wish if it would have been just 100 times tougher than just ‘typing’.

Last few days, I have lost count of the numerous nervous breakdowns I had, all because of just pushing me to the very end of the queue of my priority list.

Ofcourse I have been always selfish, what else would you expect from an only child? But what would happen when she is left with an only child? Just any mother would do. Pushed every other thing ahead of her, except her needs..

And the result???  I felt sick almost everyday leaving my little girl scared, insecure and cranky. And I was like ‘ For once, I stopped being selfish and here I fall sick always!’. And only today I realised that I was making the BIG MOMMY mistake. By being selfless, I was actually being more and more selfish to my baby. I felt sick continously, and was unfit to feed her, change her, play with her. I didnt eat sometimes for more than 24 hrs, postponing it, doing my MOMMY chores one

after another. And I thought I was being the GOOD MOMMY.

No I wasn't. I was actually being the BAD MOMMMY, by making myself not available to my baby, when she truly needed me. And yes, that is THE enlightenment I got today.

Lesson : Healthy, happy babies are not born like that. They are raised to be so,by a healthy happy MOMMY, and not by a sick, weak MOMMY. Yes that was the truth.

And by putting myself last in my TO-DO list, I was destroying a healthy, happy mommy who was supposed to create a healthy happy baby. And how can I imagine that I was becoming the ‘selfless’ mommy??

This is the GREAT mommy mistake. So, all mommies, who havent got this 'enlightenment' yet and feel guilty when you are sick that you cant take care of your little one, always remember this one

Golden Rule:

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Healthy happy mommies make healthy happy babies. So if you want to make sure you always see your babies smile, make sure to put yourself in your priority list without feeling guilty, or in the long run, you WILL  REALLY REALLY feel guilty....

and with that.............

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY TO all those naive mommies, who forgets to eat, bathe , and think about their life , just because you dont have TIME for yourself, and you are too busy looking after your baby.

Just remember for a tree to spread out, the roots must be watered and looked after...

Got to go... mine is screaming calling ‘maaammma’....Oh I forgot, I have to eat

[caption id="attachment_479" align="alignnone" width="300"] tired grumpy mother[/caption]