I must admit, before having a baby I used to get slightly frustrated when I’d call my some of my friends who had kids and the conversation would go like this:
Me: “Hi, how are you?”
My friend: “Exhausted. The baby was up at ------ No, you can’t have another Yogurt! -- 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. for no apparent reason and then -- We do NOT sit on our sister’s head!! -- I had to take the car into the shop but -- Hey! Can’t you guys SEE that I am on the PHONE?! The next person who starts whining goes in time out!---- Sorry. You there? Now what was I saying?”
Me: “Um, I’ll let you go. Bye!”
Now I am that annoying, distracted person on the other end. I’ve learned when calling my other "mommy" friends to start conversations with, “Can you talk?” I used to say, “Are you busy?” But seriously, when is a mom NOT busy? If her kids aren’t bleeding and she can chat while she changes a diaper, that’ll do.
Unfortunately, stress is unavoidable when you’re a mom. I've had my fair share of it lately...this age is a tough one! :) And anyway, the challenge of finding time for a phone call is not really a matter of being busy, but rather, available. It’s not that I’m too busy doing something productive, like, unloading the dishwasher when somebody calls. It’s that I’m preoccupied by my son who’s trying to see if both his feet AND hands can fit in the dog's water bowl at the same time or I'm busy diving across the room as he is pretending to be Superman as he climbs ON TOP of the Dining Room table.
Most of the time it seems that Caden waits until I’m on the phone to be bad. He knows I’m distracted and doesn't like that he is not the center of my universe at that moment. So if you call me and our conversation is interrupted SEVEN times in the first 3 minutes, I apologize. Gosh I hate that for you. If I seem distracted, it doesn't mean I’m not listening. Trust me, I can fish a lego out of the toilet with a spatula and talk at the same time. Don’t bother asking if it’s a good time to talk because there’s never going to BE a good time. Now, what were you saying again? :)
Thanks to all of you for your unending patience with me!
2 comments:
You just described EVERY mother's life! It only gets worse... It's like they have an alarm on and when the phone rings the alarm goes off and they could be doing something totally quiet and non-disruptive and then the phone rings and they just go beserk!!! I remember being just like this with my mom, so I guess it's payback time :o) Hilarious though. Sometimes I get done with my phone call and I try to remember what I said, and then when I do I'm totally embarrassed because I sounded like a moron! Oh well......
Ha! That describes every conversation we have had in the past 3 1/2 years. It is the ultimate in multi-tasking.
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