Geeky Mom

Thanks in large part to Geeky Boy who was prepared as part of his punishment to do a few chores with me without payment. I ended up paying him about half of what the work was worth. We completely cleaned the kitchen and most of the dining room. The hamster cages will be cleaned out tonight. He also worked on his room and went with me on various errands.

He’s out now with friends and will be attending a birthday party this evening. I was proud of him, jumping in and helping without complaining, without even much of a break. It’s a beautiful day outside. I’m glad he’s getting to enjoy it.

*Not intended to sound like Cheney, et. al.

Yesterday was an extrordinarily productive day. I really got on top of my work load. I was feeling a little crazy there for a while. I realized though that it was people around me who were crazy. I had a lot of people over the last week come to me in somewhat of a panic, needing something right. this. minute. Well, I don’t do right this minute. Even if my schedule permitted it, the technology often doesn’t. I’m constantly amazed by people who think that digitizing an hour-long movie will take less than an hour (it takes much longer, depending on the final output), or that printing a large poster with lots of pictures won’t possibly be problematic. Sigh. But I was letting their panic make me panic. I’m okay now.

I’ve convinced Mr. Geeky to switch with me and attend Geeky Girl’s soccer game this morning and I’ll be going to Geeky Boy’s tomorrow. Geeky Boy is in a bit of trouble for some homework issues, so he’ll be doing time with me today. I’m planning to go from room to room and make a list of all the things that need to be done. Most of them won’t get done, but at least we’ll have a running list.

What I really want to do is lay around on the couch and watch bad tv all day. It’s cloudy; it might rain. Lazing around seems the most appropriate thing to do. I’ll save that for tomorrow.

Isn’t watching this hurricane a little like rubber necking? I heard last night on the radio (The World; specific segment) while sitting in the grocery store parking lot that the insurance companies have a catastrophic model that tells them that storms like this will be more frequent and stronger. The interviewer said, “Are you saying that these storms are man-made?” (His previous question had been about global warming.) The interviewee wouldn’t go that far, but she did say that their models say that global warming is real. She just wouldn’t pinpoint the cause of global warming. It made me wonder if it won’t be long before some companies will be pushing the government to do something about global warming. I mean, how many more Ivans, Katrinas, and Ritas can insurance companies pay for?

rita, Rita

Testing trackback on the woi blog.

Lots of people have written about the NY Times article that discusses how many female Ivy League grads are planning to stay at home instead of work. People have come at it from different angles–the class angle, the gender angle, the really bad journalism angle. I think all of those apply. Only a certain class of people can comfortably say, “I won’t need to work.” For lots of complicated reasons, the burden of balancing work and family life falls to the woman, and the article does little to support the claims made or spread a wider net (are female State School grads going to stay at home?).

I posted a little of my reaction to my class blog, hoping that a group of smart women at an all women’s college would have something to say. So far, not much. I’m hoping they will after class today.

I am conflicted about my reaction. On the one hand, I’m a little jealous. I’d love to have the “choice” To me, choice is such a loaded word. Choices aren’t made in a vacuum. Circumstances change, choices change, options change. I’d like to say that the choices I’ve made were well-thought-out decisions, but many of them were reactions to circumstances. I first started working to put Mr. Geeky through grad school a little more comfortably than our combined Teaching Assistant salaries could. I took a year off and hated it, went back to school, loved it. Took a full time job again for financial reasons. Mostly reactionary. Oh, sure, when I was in college, I made plans. I was going to be a poet, never get married, and never have children. Even after having a boyfriend that I thought I could marry, I didn’t think I wanted children (because we were artists; artists don’t have children). Then I fell in love and I wanted children. And then you have to pay for the children.

The article makes me angry at some kind of gut level that I don’t think I have the words for, though many of the other bloggers who’ve written about it have tapped into that anger. I think at the heart of it, I recognize, sadly, that women are still considered second class citizens, even by other women, even by themselves.

Rules:
1. Go into your archive.

2. Find your 23rd post (or closest to).

3. Find the fifth sentence (or closest to).

4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.

“But they don’t put their money where their mouth is.” (original)

via Profgrrrrl

It’s become clear to me that Geeky Girl and I are on different wavelengths. Morning routines are only the tip of the iceberg. It’s true I’m a slacker mom. The kids are responsible for getting their own breakfast, getting dressed, brushing their teeth and gathering their things. I prompt them throughout the morning, but Geeky Boy has now gotten to a point where he really doesn’t need much prompting. He’s motivated to get out the door early so that he can play football in the street with his friends before the bus comes. Geeky Girl is another story. Earlier this week, she came down and ate breakfast before she got dressed and watched cartoons while she ate, meaning that she paid no attention to the time and we were rushing a little to get out the door. I banned tv and insisted that she get dressed before eating. That worked out fine except that she still finds ways to distract herself from the task at hand. Today, she went upstairs to put her shoes on and brush her teeth. First, she asked if she could dump a bucket of water that was in the bathtub. Then she asked about something else having nothing to do with shoes or teeth brushing. I said, “Don’t worry about everything else. Just finish getting ready.” Ten minutes later, she comes down with her shoes on and I tie them and say, “Let’s go.” And she points to her teeth and says she needs to brush them. I’m losing it at this point. What the heck were you doing up there?! Hurry it up. Let’s go. Finally, the teeth are brushed, the hair is combed and we can go.

On other fronts, Geeky Girl contradicts everything I say. I am trying to take this with humor, but it’s hard sometimes, especially when it’s every. single. thing. I did this with my own mother I know. And part of the fun was getting her goat. So I’m trying not to let Geeky Girl get my goat and recognize this for what it is: an attempt to figure out who she is and how she’s different from me. I want her to feel listened to and respected, something I often didn’t feel with my own mother. But, boy is she trying my patience.

children

Apparently, people saw the speech as politically motivated. Imagine that.

Two reasons why I couldn’t sleep. It’s that time of year when it’s not quite cold enough at night to open the windows, but it’s too cold to run the air conditioner. So I started out with the air conditioner off and started to sweat, flip my pillow every 5 minutes to the cold side and generally feel uncomfortable. I cranked the air back up but then I was tossing and turning trying to turn off the RSS feed in my head. Literally, I was seeing a mini Bloglines in my minds eye. I kept telling myself to shut down and tried to make my brain into a blank screen, but I just couldn’t. I slept fitfully between about 11 and 2. At 2, the tossing and turning finally ended. I’m ready for a vacation or at least a trip to the spa.