Some days, I really miss being a student. Students have built in breaks – spring break, summer break, Christmas break, Easter break, four-day weekends sprinkled in here and there, random “teacher in service” days, snow days, “ski week” (Seriously, what the hell is “ski week?” We never had that.), etc. Work completely stops during these breaks.
It’s not like adulthood and having a real-world job. You only get a break when you take time off work, and you have to work long enough to earn that time off. Unlike when you were in school, work still continues while you’re gone. You have so much prep to do before your vacation and so much catching up to do afterward, it’s almost not even worth it. Almost.
Then, when you become a parent, there’s really no such thing as a break. Your work that was once forty hours per week is now 24/7. That baby doesn’t know that it’s Saturday and gets up at his usual early hour. He doesn’t know it’s after five-o-clock and time to slow down and chill. There’s no sleeping in, no slowing down, no chilling. You’re a parent now, and you’re on. All. The. Time. Even on vacation.
And to think there was a time when I couldn’t wait to be a grown-up. Kids have no idea what they’re in for.
So as adults, as parents, we need to latch on to any break time we can get. We need to force ourselves to slow down, reprioritize and let some stuff go. Our sanity is at stake.
That’s why I’m taking a little bloggy break this week – a Christmas Blog-cation, if you will. As much as I love writing, it’s not always easy posting five days a week. It actually gets a little stressful at times.
Then I remember that I can actually not post if I want to. The only obligation to keep up this sometimes-hectic blog schedule is to myself. There are very few things in my life I have control over, and so I often forget that my blog is one of those things. I can actually take a break whenever I need to, and that’s okay. Wow, that feels liberating. The goal is to be relaxed and refreshed when I return, and hopefully that will be reflected in my writing.
What will I do with myself this week? I’m going to focus on my family and getting ready for Christmas. I’m going to bake some cookies, take time to chat on the phone with family and friends, and start tackling some other projects (like Quinn’s baby book, which I have still not started after nine months). I’m going to spend evenings with my husband – with my laptop closed. (Crazy talk!) I hope he’s okay with that.
I’ll be back with a QWA on Tuesday, December 27 and tell you all about Quinn’s first Christmas. Then we’ll be back to our regularly scheduled programming. Until I decide to take another blog-cation, which I think I will allow myself to do a bit more often.
I hope your holiday is merry and bright!
