As Easter approaches, I’m reminded of last year’s delightful bunny tale.
My husband discovered that our son had been “borrowing” his razor.
“My mustache is getting really bad, Dad,” the fourteen year old said.
Once we wiped our eyes, and regained our composure, my husband and I decided that the child was old enough to have his own shaving supplies.
Easter was in a few days. As we assembled the baskets (and yes, our teen gets one only because his younger sister still believes in the bunny), I struggled with what on earth to put in such an old kid’s basket. Then I had an epiphany! That year, the bunny brought my teenager a shaving kit along with the assorted Peeps and chocolate eggs in his basket.
From a press release that landed in my inbox, declaring there is a “new movement of stay-at-home momism” and that “despite the progress women have made and despite the overwhelming number of reasons why women should stay in the workplace, more and more young mothers are opting to raise children full time.”
- Workforce participation for married women with children has dropped from 59% in 1998 to 52% in 2000
- In 2005, there were 5.4 million stay at home moms compared with 4.5 million in 2003
- Twice as many Gen-X mothers as baby boomer mothers spend more than 12 hours a day attending to child rearing and household responsibilities
Apparently the overwhelming number of reasons for “stay at work” moms is decreasing!
Last year, I read a column by Patricia McLaughlin that mentioned the FlyLady. I was intrigued and asked around only to find that I had two friends that were “Flybabies.”
I read the FlyLady’s book, “Sink Reflections” (by Marla Cilley, the FlyLady’s real name). It changed the way I thought about, well, everything at home and at work and made a real difference in my life.
I can look back to a year ago today, when I was feeling very overwhelmed and really NOT loving myself (FLY, in the book, stands for Finally Loving Yourself). I can now list very specific ways I’ve changed for the better as a result of reading it, and taking it to heart.
If you’re feeling this way, give the FlyLady a try.
In my spare time (my second of three jobs I’ll admit to) I write a shopping column for the St. Louis Post Dispatch. Here’s this week’s edition of Shop Talk.
I’m teaching this semester; a course in public relations at Fontbonne University. It’s a commitment I’ve made, to teach every other year, one night a week for sixteen weeks. It’s a two and a half hour class.
With the amount of to-do on my list, family, being sick (still, can you believe it?), teaching has seemed at times like one thing too many. Getting ready for class I count up the weeks till May and think, If I can just make it through this . . .
But then Wednesday night comes, and I see my students’ smiling faces, hear their voices, marvel at their ideas, laugh with them (okay, sometimes at them), and enjoy thoroughly the place they are in their lives, and being a part of the process of ushering them through it. Driving home every week I remember, Yes, that’s why I’m doing this; because it’s just so much fun.
