Work life balance isn’t a thing when you have children. It can better be described as paid labor and the much more important but unpaid job and reason you have to have a paid job. The raising of the children is the more important aspect of life but it is never the one that gets the focus.
Tonight I hobbled into this room with both my meeting hurting. It was another busy weekend of the paid job. I spent a good portion of it driving way too far and running over my time limit. On Friday I was in my car for nearly five hours and had barely more visits than that. That is way too much driving. That is what was really wearing me out this weekend.
As early as Friday evening I was feeling pain driving and just wanted to pull over on the side of the road, and then the real fun began. A house with three pets and each having a special routine and the client booking our shortest visit length. It was more work than could be completed in that time but it had to be completed and complete it I did. The biggest issue there was medicine that had to be given 12 hours apart and the visit times not lining up with a great way to do that. I decided the best way was to wake up at 4:00 AM and get their by 5:00.
That was the second issue this weekend brought. Today I felt lucky. I was done working at 1:30, but then I came home and my eight month old daughter kept crawling to the gate and saying, “Hi dad.” As cute as it was I didn’t want no hi dad. I wasn’t in the mood for hi dad. I was in the mood for sit on my ass and relax dad, but we don’t always get what we want.
After the baby daughter had claimed my attention one of our twins woke up and wanted to go outside. He wouldn’t take no for an answer so my wife took him outside and then it was more hi dads as I attempted to leave my daughter with her grandmother and rest my feet, but that fate wasn’t to be. She decided she was hungry and I fed her and then she still wasn’t happy so outside we went to find her mother. Our daughter and the cat both get upset when the family is apart. For the eight month old if mom and dad aren’t in the same room it is crying time, and that one can cry.
I sometimes suspect that my daughter is part foghorn. She was born showing off her powerful lungs and hasn’t stopped since. I love her but she has a soul piercing scream. You should try listening to her entering hour two of crying while you are stuck in traffic at the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel. That is the real fun.
As many challenges as life and work throw in the way there is really only one thing to do, move forward. It is all that can be done. There is always a tomorrow, until there isn’t, but that is a long long way off and until then there is always a tomorrow.
David Huzzard Writes 