I’m pretty sure that most people dislike Monday’s more than any other day of the week. But for me, not only does it mean getting back to the daily grind, but it also means spending less time with my daughter. It feels as though everyone else gets plenty of one-on-one time with her during the week except me (Although I’m sure her dad would agree that he also doesn’t get enough time with her).
After I’ve had a wonderful weekend with the family and have spent some one-on-one time with my daughter, it’s difficult to put my “work hat” on. The weekends are fabulous with sleeping in, hanging with dad, going to breakfast, playing around the house, going for walks, seeing grandma and grandpa and just having time together (yep, even cleaning!).
And then… Monday comes! And the time with my daughter begins to fade. Today it began with a huge traffic jam, which meant I sat on the highway for a little over an hour. By the time I got to work, I was already frazzled and missing the weekend. As the day progressed, I kept thinking back to the nice relaxing weekend and found it difficult to focus for very long. It ended up being a crazy day where nothing seemed to go right. I could feel the stress building, but not because of the work, but because I knew that the more things didn’t go right, the longer I’d have to be there. And all I wanted to do was get home.
Now, it’s not that I don’t like my job, in fact I really enjoy it! I work with a bunch of great people and I love the fact that I’m constantly learning something new. The problem is that I would prefer to be spending time with my daughter (and family in general) rather than driving back and forth to work. But knowing that it’s going to take me up to an hour to get home, makes me want to leave as soon as possible. I find myself looking up the traffic report starting around 4:15pm and hitting “refresh” about every 15 minutes or so until I finally leave. Which every day is slightly different, depending on what is going on that day, mandates when I head home.
Today I was ready to head out the door at 5:00pm, however a build to the QA environment (sorry, geek talk) didn’t go so well. And forty five minutes later I flew out the door without even helping to finish the release. I was feeling so guilty that I might miss dinner time, that I just HAD to leave the office. I really hate getting home so late that all I get to do is put my daughter in her pj’s and then put her down for the night. I’d like to at least get a little mommy-baby time before bedtime. Tonight I was lucky, and arrived home just in time for dinner.
The best part of the weekday though, is seeing the look on my daughter’s face when I get home. She has such a sweet smile and gets so excited, that it makes the time I spent away from her just melt away. I hope that as my daughter grows up, she learns to understand why I’m not with her during the day. And realizes that she gets special time with me every evening and every weekend. I also hope that she’s sees me as a strong, independent woman who works in a man’s world and does one heckuva job! I’d like to think that I’m a good role model for her. 
How do you deal with being away from your family during the day (and/or nights)?
Jennifer Sable Lopez is the Development Team Lead and Technical SEO for an online company. She manages multiple blogs, is a sucker for social networking and also writes for and manages momsbyte.com and codejen.com.
PDF Related posts:
jennita
Type-A Parent Conference
Type-A Parent Conference 2012 registration is open! Type-A is in its fourth year, and will be held in Charlotte. Find out more at the official conference site.
Get Type-A in Your Inbox
For Companies and Firms
Get sponsorship information for Type-A Parent Conference 2012.
Type-A Parent Founder and CEO Kelby Carr is powered by Keurig K-Cups.
