Pipe dreams???

I was inside this quaint little cottage with stone walls and tiled roof. It was soothingly warm inside and the delicious smell of hot chocolate pervaded. I was sitting in a cozy chair near the window, my legs stretched out, turning the pages of a book lazily, looking out of the window once in a while. The scene from the window was simply breathtaking – hillocks covered with green pastures, clear blue sky and a small silver stream of water flowing through the meadows. I could ask for nothing more – this was my perfect moment of peace and tranquility. Baaaaaaahhhhhhh… A shrill cry ran through the air and shook me. I struggled up and threw off my sheets. My daughter was bawling next to me in bed from her teething pain. My husband was sleeping peacefully (like a child?) on the other end of the bed. My daughter’s cries don’t normally get him out of Dreamland as easily as they get me. I rocked my daughter back to sleep – thankfully, she fell asleep easily this time. As I tried to settle down to sleep, I recollected my dream fondly and wondered when that would come true, if at all it could come true. A bit of time for myself to laze around, do what I want and worry about nothing else. I guess I have to wait at least for a couple of years – or is it more?

I work full-time. For those of you who think full-time is morning 9 to evening 6, here is a peek into my routine. After I get back home at 7 (1 hr commute), I spend the remaining time with my daughter. We play peek-a-boo, read the story of “How the caterpillar became a butterfly” together and we even do some silly little jigs to her favorite music. After that is her bed-time. Putting her to bed can take as little as 10 minutes or as much as 90 mts (very rare, but really!), depending on how she has slept during the day. So, on the easy days, after she has slept, I come out and complete some pending chores – putting the ironed clothes back into the closet, putting her toys back in place, writing out cheques for bills and the likes. I have my dinner and by that time, I am ready to crash onto bed. Sometimes I spend a few minutes checking emails or watching headlines on T.V, but then this disciplinarian inner voice tells me to not waste time and get to bed, because sleep is precious. My husband usually works late and is never around in the evenings on working days.
I need at least 7 hours of sleep a day, preferably 8, to keep me energetic and functioning fully well. And since my daughter is an early-riser, I prefer retiring early. And then, the next morning at 6 AM, I either wake up to her chatter or she decides to wake me up by smooching me all over my face. If it has been a good night, with little disruptions in her sleep, I feel fresh. But if she has been unwell, or has had teething troubles or such, I get up but my body is longing for a few hours of uninterrupted sleep. And then the day starts….

Whoever coined the word “working mom” was a bit out of vocabulary I think. We have a choice of adjectives in English to describe this state– How about stressed mom, besieged mom, inundated mom, hassled mom, fraught mom? Does it sound very bad? But any mom-to-a-toddler who works full time would agree with my choice of words.

Gone are those days when I could spend my time lazing through books and magazines. Now, even if I lock myself in for a long bath on weekends, I strain my ear to listen to my daughter’s protests asking for me from outside. And 90 out of 100 times, I hear it clearly 10 minutes into my bath. And so it doesn’t take a Freud to help interpret the above dream of mine. Like Julie Andrews sang in “The Sound of Music” I can list down a few of my “Favorite things” that I long to do. Here are some of my dream things-to-do..
- Have a whole morning lazing around doing nothing - Get up when I want to, make a cup of steaming coffee for myself and read a newspaper fully
- Reading a whole book in one sitting
- Being at home alone for a whole day with the calling bell and telephone disconnected
- Shopping for a full day without a care in the world and without feeling guilty
- Having a late night dinner, without having to worry 15 times every 10 minutes about my daughter waking up and crying for me
- Listening to good music at least 30 minutes a day (without noise disruptions)
- Making this blog of mine more readable - he he he

Like ABBA sing in their beautiful song,
“I have a dream, a fantasy
To help me through reality……
.............................
I believe in angels
When I know the time is right for me
Ill cross the stream - I have a dream”