I believe all mom's are Super Human Beings. How else do you wipe a baby's butt, throw in a load of laundry, and send an email to your work address with a power point attached to it, all in one big SWOOP! The other day I was doing just that. I think sometimes I may even have a touch of ADHD. Much of my thoughts are scatter brained with things like, folding clothes, should I enroll the kids into preschool, did I put that latch on the drawer that Thing Two was messing with, how many loads can I wash with this much detergent and where can I get it for cheaper, should Thing One go to tee ball...and ON and ON. I blame my parents for this. Yes there, I said it!
My parents, Sarge and Mami always had me in an activity of some sort or other. I remember when I was about eight years old I had Folkloric dance on Mondays, baton on Tuesdays, Girls Scouts on Wednesday, Gymnastics on Thursdays, and Fridays were reserved for family dining out time. Saturday's I would be shuffled into the car so that we could go to East Los Angeles and go visit friends of my parents and go grocery shopping. Sunday's, the day of rest were spent at church and lunch at the park. My goodness! I was a busy little child! No wonder it followed me into adulthood! If I don't have 5 million things going on in my life, I wonder...is something missing?
The other day I caught myself online looking for things for my kids to do. Saturdays we spend at Gymboree and I was looking at Mommy and Me ballet classes for Thing Two. Then I began to look at the tee-ball schedules for Thing Two. We have already signed up for parent workshops at the library for Thursday evenings, which work like a preschool. Did I mention that Thing One is taking two weeks of Fall swimming classes at the community center? I stopped and thought, this is what my parents did to me! OH MAN! So I asked Mami, why did they involve me in so many things when I was little. She simply stated "Oh mija, you asked to be in all that stuff and your face lighted up every time you went to your special activities". So I wonder have I always had to have a circus running? Maybe I do have ADHD!
Then I thought of Thing One and Thing Two. Both of my lovely children like to be active, like to be stimulated. If I ever saw an ounce of stress with all these activities I involve them in, I would certainly eliminate it. Maybe my parents knew I loved all the activities and that it wasn't stressing me out and I was actually benefiting from all this activity. I learned to multi-task and organize my time. Imagine that!
I can only hope Thing One and Thing Two can see it that way. Until then, bring on ballet, tee ball, soccer, story time, and playgroups!
