Putting a smile on Mama’s face

Hard work really does pay off – my lesson of the week

The past week has been tough.  There has been a huge amount going on at work, a fair amount going on socially and combined with Mark also working hard, the smile supply in our house dipped slightly.  Whilst on the one hand a bit of blogging therapy would have probably done me good, eagerness not to just have negative post after negative post kept me away from the blog.   

The truth of it though is that life can be hard to juggle at the best of time and when the work-life balance gets messed about with life can be really tough to handle.  The people who know me best, and probably even those who don’t know me very well at all know that I get tired and grumpy.

My boys – Alby, Mark and Percy are the silver linings of my life. Usually they provide constant and spontaneous smiles, laughter and happiness.  Other times though we all have to work a little bit harder for them.  And that’s really what my lesson today was all about.

As Alby gets older and more independent he is incredibly happy to just find his own games to play.  What’s more, he has an ever growing sense of what he does and doesn’t want to do – low betide the person who tries to take him away from something he doesn’t want to do.  And so, last week in my tired and busy state, when my initial attempts at engaging Alby in an activity failed I confess I just gave up.  My thoughts went along the lines of “Fair enough, you’re happy to just get on with things, I’ll leave you to it as my to do list has plenty to keep me entertained”.  And whilst it did give me the time to get the house in order and chip away at various work projects, I ended each evening feeling as though I’d failed a bit as a mother, I’d interpreted us being under the same roof as us being together when really there was no quality to it at all.  Looking back at the slightly unsettled attitude of Trouble Monkey last week I’d say he felt it more than I’d realised then too.

Today I wasn’t going to take no for an answer however.  I was done with work, I was on top of my tasks and by George, I wanted some giggles.  Hard work really does pay off.  Alby and I chased each other  around the garden and the house, danced in the living room, threw ourselves onto bean bags and rolled across the living room floor.  He is my afternoon medicine.  And I guess I’m his too.  So yes, he is learning to be independent and yes I praise his ability to play solo, but in the same way that life and work need balance, so do Alby and I. 

As with all the lessons I log here, I hope in some way that by writing them down I am carving them onto my brain as I’ve found them all so important and I don’t ever want to forget a single one of them.