Getting the job done

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As I sit here on the kitchen floor, laptop perched on my legs, the above is what my 6-month-old wanted to add to this post. We’re at home together this afternoon because of pink eye. She was sent home from daycare with it yesterday, and despite being on the medication for 24 hours when she returned to school today, they sent her home again because the other eye started leaking green goo. I can’t say I blame them for not wanting a green-goo-eyed baby in their midst, but when it’s two days in a row of having to pick her up early, something has to give. I have to get some work done, and if it means sitting with her on the kitchen floor and letting her bang a little bit on the keyboard as she tries to use my legs to push herself up to the standing position (yes, she’s only 6 months old and already pulling herself to standing, and no, I’m not happy about it), then so be it.

Yesterday as I sat on the kitchen floor, engaged in a work-related telephone call, I had to apologize to the person on the other end of the line because, as the baby was happily chewing on my personal cell phone (yes, I am THAT person who has a work cell phone and a personal cell phone), she was also making sounds like she was growling.  The person on the phone was being polite and not mentioning the fact that I was apparently sharing my workday with a noisy officemate. But I was sure he could hear the background noise, so I explained the pink eye situation and apologized for my happy-growler.

When I got the call that I had to go pick her up early again this afternoon, I explained to the daycare that I had a conference call that I couldn’t miss but I’d be there as soon as I could. After collecting her, we drove to the pharmacy to pick up her prescriptions (we always like to have as much pink eye medication as we can on hand). Because everything I do defies logic, we still go to the pharmacy that is located all the way on the other side of town, despite the fact that we moved almost two-and-a-half years ago. So by the time we got back home, the baby was asleep in her car seat.

This is not a baby who generally sleeps in her car seat. And if she does happen to fall asleep while we’re driving, she is the type of baby who typically wakes up the moment the car stops moving. So when I pulled into the driveway and put the car in park and she didn’t wake up, I decided to stay put and let her sleep since I knew there was no chance she’d stay sleeping if I tried to transfer her into the house.

As she snoozed peacefully in her seat in the back, I picked up my phone and got working on emails, systematically checking things off my to-do list from the driver’s seat of the car.  The radio was playing, the baby was sleeping, and I was getting work done. Granted, it wasn’t a conventional setting to be doing work, but the work was getting done nonetheless. And the baby was napping. And no one was screaming. And when no one is screaming, I take it as a sign that I’m doing something right!

I texted my husband to tell him of our current situation and he replied, “That sounds like the perfect picture of a working mom.”

And it really is. It isn’t always ideal, and it isn’t always what you’d expect—but moms can get the job done by any means necessary!