My mom keeps asking me what I want for Christmas. I have a hard time with that question! It’s really challenging to not just ask for practical things.
I mean, I always need more Full-Bust Nursing Tanks. (She actually did buy me one of those for my birthday one year)
My son bought me earrings and some bath bombs at his school bazaar. I keep wondering when I’ll have time to take a bath and actually use the bath bombs! That’s always the kicker if I get an “experience” gift. When will I find time to go to a meditation class or a yoga class or schedule a massage? Sometimes I get pampering gifts like that and feel overwhelmed trying to arrange the logistics of using the gift.
Isn’t that nuts? My husband leaves the house for something, and he just goes to the event and comes back. Evening work meeting? No problem. He just leaves, goes to the meeting, and comes home. Business as usual! So why do I feel like I have to do so much work just to leave the house for an hour-long acupuncture treatment I’ve been gifted?
In addition to putting on clothes free from spit-up and boogers, I have to nurse the baby, make sure food is prepared and ready to go for everyone to eat while I’m gone, drop a load of laundry in, and verify this or that or the other thing that needs to take place the next day.
But do I really need to do all of that? What would happen if I just went upstairs, put on some clean jeans, and walked out to claim my gift?
The problem is that I’ve set up the expectation that I will take care of all these things. All the knowledge of the logistics of our household lives inside my head, so I can’t very well feel frustrated if I try to bring in a pinch hitter one night and he feels utterly unprepared. I’ve been working lately to make sure my husband knows things about , like what needs to be in Miles’ school bag each morning, what appointments we have each week and what paperwork is needed for each. Theoretically, if he knows this stuff or how to find it out, I could just walk on out the door.
Sometimes, this feels like too much work. Do I really need to narrate while packing lunches? Well, probably not if it weren’t always me packing the lunches. I’ve stopped short of making a manual for each kid, but we do have an insanely detailed, color-coded Google calendar that beeps at us frequently.
What I’d truly love for Christmas is to go to a 7pm showing of Catching Fire, all by myself–I guess maybe I’d love to go with my husband, but only if he were going to enjoy the movie–and to just stand up, put on clean clothes, and walk out the door before the show starts, not sweating, cool as a cucumber. Then, I’d like to come home from the movie and find everything I would have done during it got done while I was gone, so I’m not sweating or rushing the next day, either. That’s my wishlist!
Do you have a hard time stepping out from your family for a treat? Leave us a comment to share your experience.
