In search of a shovel and a Zamboni. Used is fine. Need immediately, delivery required. Expect me to attempt to speak to you about the Super Bowl, {I didn’t watch it, but at least I know it happened} the election {how long ago was that again?} the weather, the breakdown of American society, my kids’ poop and anything else I can shove into a five-minute exchange. It is lonely in the motherhood trenches, friends.
I will try to lure you in with food, offering burnt cookies and underbaked bread in exchange for a moment of conversation which will nevertheless occur whilst my children hang from me and scream for chips or candy or gum or pop. They know it doesn’t matter what they ask for because if I am speaking to another human they can pretty much have whatever they want. If you call, expect shrieks in the background. Don’t worry, they just “need” something. I am ignoring them, I wish you would too. Please don’t ask if it would be better to call back later. Like later when? In a hundred years? I have taken to tossing food at them and slamming the door shut while I make a phone call. Just today at 7:45AM I gave my #4 a popsicle because I was trying to talk to #2’s school counselor. What kind of mother gives a 2-year-old a popsicle at 7:45 in the morning?
The same mother who needs a shovel and a Zamboni to clean her house, I suppose. She is entering the fall calendar into her phone and writing it on a whiteboard so nothing gets missed. She held onto the long summer because it was the last one she enjoyed before her #3 began school. She is sending funny dinosaur memes to her #1 because they have to stay connected somehow. She packs her husband’s lunch *almost* everyday so that he knows that she knows he still exists. She does it all with a grateful heart.
Cut yourself some slack, ladies. It will all get done. Give a mom-friend a call once in a while. Better yet, stop by for crispy cookies and let the kids wreck my house, I’ve got a new shovel on the way!
How do you sooth the sting of isolation during these long, lonely seasons?
