Before becoming a parent, I lived off of a schedule. I meticulously added things to my calendar, was on time for lunch dates, and did grocery shopping like clockwork on Sunday’s after church.
MOTHERHOOD: the disruption to my weekly schedule.
When a baby enters your life, the schedule seems to disappear. I’ll quote myself here: “It’s Joey’s world, and we’re just living in it.”
As parents, when we become obsessed with hard deadlines and schedules, we add extra pressure to our daily life (as if there’s not enough already taking care of another human being). Why do we do that to ourselves?! There’s already one person that thinks we do things perfectly, day in and day out (two if you are on good terms with your partner).
ROUTINES: helping me feel like I still a schedule, even when baby and life throw me a curveball.
We may not have a set schedule everyday, but we have a routine. Now our daily routine is pretty similar (almost schedule-like), until we add a doctor’s appointment, vacation, ear infection, manicure, etc. to the calendar for that
day. But sure enough, after a day or two (or week with teething) that same routine comes back again.
I’ve taken solace in knowing routines work for Joey, Ted, and myself. If you need a strict schedule, more power to you. But this is what works for us- us being my sanity. Ask me again when Joey is a toddler… and I might have a different answer!
Predictable can be boring. Creativity and thinking outside the box are sometimes products of the unexpected.