Juggling
Friday, September 13th, 2013From Friday Mom – Erin:
Rory and his daddy had some extra one-on-one time this week as I ventured out of town for my first overnight business trip since Rory was born. Luckily, my travel plans ended up being fairly simple—I flew out on Wednesday night for an all-day Thursday meeting and returned home very late on Thursday night. I had originally been scheduled to be in three states in two days for unrelated matters, so the single destination trip was a welcome—albeit last-minute—change.
Although the travel itself can be a little grueling, the logistics of getting myself to the airport on-time pale in comparison to making certain that everything is in order on the home front before heading out. Rory is still breastfeeding, so that means making certain we have enough frozen milk to sustain him in my absence. It also means that I needed to plot out how to fit in sufficient breaks to my schedule in order to remain physically comfortable during my all-day meeting (and hopefully be able to bring some fresh milk home for him, too).
Then there was the matter of making sure the morning drop-off routine went smoothly at daycare. He’s just finishing up his second week at daycare, and I am usually the one who handles the morning drop-off. His daddy is perfectly capable—it just meant we both needed to take the time to write out everything he needed to remember to do: bottles into the fridge, communication sheet into the folder, time for the next bottle onto the whiteboard, etc.
Finally, we had to talk through all the things I tend to do each evening to recap how to get things ready all-over again the next day since I was going be gone for two full evening routines.
Although it is no fun to be away from home for a night, I had a much easier time of it than I was expecting. I am extremely fortunate to have such a good teammate who had no problem picking up the added responsibility for a few days. We both juggle every day to balance the competing demands of work and parenting, but, so far, we’re managing. And that feels pretty good.
