Career Work vs. Housework

This week, I decided to make career work a priority over housework. The result? Cereal for dinner, a sea of laundry flooding my bedroom, and peas drowning in applesauce on the kitchen floor.

Between caring for my son and restarting my freelance career, I have been putting in 16-hour days. And my house is the ratty and neglected victim.

Of course, my timing is especially poor because my husband had an enormous deadline at work this week. He has also been working insanely long days, and I’m finding it tough to survive without my co-pilot who faithfully does the dishes every night.

I’ve always been pretty good at juggling a million things, but being a work-at-home-mom turns out to be the ultimate multitasking challenge. I run before my husband leaves for work, then I check email and draft a quick writing pitch while my son eats breakfast. Afterwards, we play on the floor (I stretch while he crawls all over me), read books, put in some laundry, sweep the floor (he chases the broom) and get ready for naptime.

While he sleeps, I try to get in as much work as possible, compiling my portfolio, applying for jobs, researching publications… and just as I am getting into a groove, he wakes up. So we have lunch, go to the park, pick up some groceries and come home for a second nap. He refuses to have the second nap (of course), so we play outside in the backyard while I compose articles in my head.

I make dinner, we have a nice bath, read a few books, and he finally goes to sleep. Then my shift starts all over. Before returning to my computer, I do a cursory sweep of the house – dirty diapers into the wash, clothes into the hamper, books onto shelves, toys into baskets… how on earth did my house get so messy? I am baffled. There is stuff everywhere – it looks like Chapters and Babies "R" Us threw up in unison onto our house. And the strangest part is, I just cleaned the entire place two days ago.

My inner domestic diva rebels. As much as I hate a messy house, I cannot use another minute of my day cleaning. I only have a few precious hours of uninterrupted time before I will pass out from sheer exhaustion. So tonight I am accepting the mess. There are a few dirty dishes on the counter and the floor still needs washing. (I’m completely ignoring the Cheerios ground into the carpet.) Right now I need to write.

But tomorrow I’ll clean the house, top to bottom. Again.