Our only off spring so far was 3 on Saturday, so we did our parental duty and payed for 9, 3&4 yr. olds to run themselves ragged around a giant warehouse full of soft play equipment, imagine a padded cell on the largest scale but with slides and tunnels.....would it be too off to suggest hamster heaven?
It was great really, lots of chats about nursery and the education of our delightful off spring and by the end i was aware of every muscle in my face as if the smile had been pinned back with fish hooks for 2 hours, cheaper than botox! I love my child with all that i am am try every day to be the best for her and if that was all that my life consisted of well Mary Poppins would be in trouble but unfortunately the good Lord decided i needed more, so i go off to work 4 days a week. Oh part time you cry. If i worked the extra 7 hours needed to shut the rest of the world up then would i be Super Mum......just more tired and exhausted i feel!
Don't get me wrong there are plenty of women out there who need to work to feel like a grown up and there are as many mothers who also gave birth to an endless supply of cookies and crayons. I guess i would belong more to the cake and crayon crew but the bank balance doesn't believe in stay at home mums and i am a slave to the mortgage for now. My partner works he is following his dream as an artist, not the Pollock or Hackney kind but the body artist type, but he is still serving out his apprenticeship so we are not rich yet......We manage.
Left the house today for a 10 hr stint in the office, caught the train, late, sat amongst people trying to pull themselves together and back into the suited and booted them and cast off all links with that version of themselves they embrace hungrily from 5 pm on a Friday until Monday morning comes back round again. I however sit and read and think how wonderful just me and a book, no questions no instructions no risk assessing nothing just too quick a train ride and spat out into the concrete mass of industry and productivity, and enter work, stage left.
The day, which drags on and on is filled with meetings, emails and general office politics. I have a mantra at work, everyone has their own agenda! It's true mine is getting home in the quickest earliest possible way, for others it's gossip and tea. My boss jokes with me telling me her son has won the Lottery, i do a quick mental count to see just how much i would need to live the life i don't yet deserve, £66,000 would pay off the mortgage, but we would ned a bigger house to provide for all those children i would be at home having, lets start somewhere around the 200k mark, whilst i am thinking of ways to build that into our next supervision meeting the day approaches lunchtime, where do all these people get off on telling me how to manage my time better and bring a packed lunch into work, i didn't like them when i was 5 so why would i eat them now? Instead i fill up on MSG products from the garage and an hour latter i have a headache and wish i could sleep.
Soon my little one and Daddy will be celebrating the end of the day and getting creative with card and glue, whilst i am still at the office and the most exciting prospect on the cards for me in the next 4 hours is the train journey home, just me and my book, no questions, nothing........
