Pick-up vs. coffee

I was done at the U much sooner today than I anticipated. I had signed Alex up for the after-preschool play session at the church...Preschool ends at 11.30 and this ends at 12.30...which gave me an extra hour. I couldn't decide whether to pick him up or not..I was paying for the hour anyway....I was so torn that I actually drove there and back twice...and even walked into the church to wait to pick him up...before I slapped myself and made myself go and get a drink and walk through Barnes and Nobles.

I feel really, really guilty about doing this because I 'could' have picked him up an hour earlier...but I really enjoyed having this hour to walk through the bookstore and read......

Does anyone else go through this guilt?

Kris

[mommax3]

NO!!! (I got over it a long time ago.) :P

You are entitled to any "gifts" of time that come your way -- Alex was happy and doing fine, right? It is okay to give yourself some time during the day. I am not teaching or doing anything official during the days that my kids are at preschool except working on retaining my sanity -- it's a worthy cause, right?

Seriously, I think that moms have to allow themselves some breaks if they feel like they need them. I realize that there is a fine line to walk here, between totally disregarding your kid(s) and totally disregarding your own needs, but I don't think that you are anywhere close to doing what you want regardless of your kids. I am glad you snapped out of it, especially since you were paying for the time anyway.

Sally

[houseelf]

Kris,

I am the worst about doing this! My schedule frees up several days a week due to settlements, continuances, etc. When I get this unexpected freetime, I have been known to drag my son out in Minnesota sub zero weather, fastening him in and out of the carseat 10 times, in order to run errands "together" rather than leave him at the sitter's for an extra hour. My sitter is constantly telling me to take advantage of the fact that I pay for 40 hours a week. Seriously, it has just been in the last year that I will take an hour to run here and there.

In contrast, some of my sitter's parents who teach still send their kids 3 days a week in the summer. For whatever reason, I never get over the fact that beyond my 25-30 hours of work, the rest of my time belongs to him. Sometimes this makes for ridiculous arrangements like running at 9 p.m. or over my lunch hour. Sometimes I feel like maybe I am robbing both of us of the best of me and my time by this compulsion. Who knows?

Kelly

[Phoebe]

Everyone is going to have a different opinion on this one. A friend of mine puts her son in full-time day care when she works on her doctorate and her husband is an ob/gyn resident. You can imagine their schedules. She even put him in day care on the days when she was on vacation because she felt that he would have more fun playing with kids, etc than running errands all day with her. That is just one person's opinion.

When I was working part-time, I remember my schedule freed up early a couple times and I took a little extra time to get some stuff done instead of immediately picking up my daughter. Other times I didn't. I think it depended on the day and how long I had been gone.

Kris, you deserve some guilt-free coffee time, it may help you process your day of teaching.

Jennifer

thanks...

You know, I went back and forth on whether or not to pick him up, but the funny thing is that after I decided to go and have coffee...I picked him up and he wanted to STAY and play with his friends. We ended up staying another 15 minuts while he wound things down...and this morning he cried and cried when he didn't get to go to school. The only thing that perked him up was us going to my daughter's school to help out for an hour. He stuffed his school bag full of books, paper and crayons and sat at a little desk and colored and had big kids read to him....

I think that taking a little time for myself will be a good thing!


kris