Work from Home Lament: Summer Break
By: Jamie Boyle
Dispatches, Day 1
That haggard look—I’m hoping with the right amount of coffee and some good lighting, it’ll go away, and I’ll look like I’m keeping it together.
For those of you who don’t know me, I work from home all year with a bubbly, but manageable (most of the time) two-year-old. We get in a solid six to seven hours of work any given day thanks to a combination of naptime, strategic art time, Netflix-Nanny, and some late-night work from me.
But today marked the beginning of my elementary student’s summer break.
I swear as I drifted off to sleep last night, I heard a voice in the distance, “May the odds be ever in your favor.”
The Night Before
Now that school is out and we don’t have that weird “get the kid to school” rush in the morning, I think, “I will get up with the husband at PT time and I will exercise. I will get a start on my work before the kids wake up.”
The night before is the place where these things happen.
The Morning
I turn off the 5:00 a.m. alarm and walk into the hallway to find the dog guarding the little one’s door—a symbol too portentous for me not to “just” pop my head in and take a peek.
Child was fine and asleep, but not for long. Rookie mistake, and I am, sadly, no rookie.
So, we bound down the stairs after it becomes clear that no amount of “nuggles” will in fact result in returned slumber.