Is it unreasonable or irrational to expect our almost-5 year old daughter to entertain herself at home for...say...3-4 hours at a time while her parents work on home improvement projects?
I say yes.
DH says no.
This is our regularly scheduled Saturday discussion.
DH says it's good for J to play alone for extended periods of time and we should be encouraging it. Home projects are his therapy, he is unwilling to give them up, and he works to find some kind of balance between childcare and working on projects. (Granted, that's fairly easy for him to do when he has ME as on-call childcare back-up...) He doesn't think twice about spending 8 hours in the garage working on his tractor.
My ever-present only child guilt screams at me that since I have failed in giving her a sibling, I must therefore entertain her and ensure that she does not lead a lonely childhood. If I do leave her to her own devices, I find myself checking on her about every 30 minutes -which I'm quite certain is the reason she is fairly incapable of self-play. I've never spent 8 hours on anything that didn't include my daughter. (Wait...I take that back. When the last Harry Potter book came out, I did spend all day reading -- but DH had advance warning and I had planned several activities for them to do together away from the house so I could read in peace.) In any event, I am struggling this Saturday morning because DH has already begun a full days work on the tractor, and there are 50 million household tasks that need to be done, and my daughter has already asked me 15 times if I'll play with her.
Which brings me to why I need a handmaid....
Has anyone read The Handmaids Tale?
If you haven't, and you're infertile, be aware that if you do read it, you will spend the next few days simultaneously wishing that having a handmaid was socially acceptable, and being appalled at the thought that if you lived during the fictitious future in which the book is set, you yourself would be considered Unwoman and be sent to live in The Colonies - simply because you cannot reproduce.
On the second thought, no infertile woman should EVER read this book. Like we need any help thinking of ourselves as Unwoman. What was I thinking??
PS -- Can you tell I got my period this morning?
1 comment:
Now I am intrigued by this book. "Unwoman..." Sighs. Haven't we all felt that at one time or another?
Em is pretty good at playing independently...but 3-4 hours? Nah, I'm happy to get 1. If I'm in a real bind, I'll let her watch a movie. Since she doesn't watch much, she is a glued-to-the-TV type kid and will sit and watch an ENTIRE movie usually.
Of course then I have mama guilt that I'm using the TV as a babysitter. Geesh. I guess we can't win?? :)
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