How to Bounce Back

  1. Wake up with a head full of busy-mom thoughts. Need to pay bills. Better get those leaves raked and bagged before it rains this afternoon. Got to do laundry and pack for our trip. The kids need baths. 7yo got up at 5 a.m.; she’s gonna be in a terrible mood. How am I going to keep them off their devices all day?
  2. Skip your usual head-clearing, treasured-time-to-yourself morning walk, because the kids are home on fall break and your husband left early for work.
  3. Log on to your work laptop. Answer emails, attend conference calls, fight fires, fix problems. Try to keep up with the deluge of instant messages from co-workers who are about to go away for Thanksgiving and want you to do just one thing for them first.
  4. Spend the morning juggling the kids’ needs and your employer’s needs. Do a mediocre job at both. Feel your sanity stretching thin.
  5. Feed your picky 7yo Campbell’s soup for lunch. Microwave leftovers and eat them at your desk.
  6. When your 10yo asks you to go outside with her and jump on the backyard trampoline, fight back the workaholic urge to stay at the computer. Tell the Fortune 100 corporation to go screw. Say yes. Watch 10yo switch off the Xbox with a grin.
  7. Jump around for a full half-hour of unadulterated goofball fun. Try to bounce each other off the stretchy surface. Do split leaps and cartwheels. Compete to see how high you can leap. End up breathless and laughing, lying on your backs, gazing up at the leafless trees.
  8. Work the rest of the day a little lighter, a bit more buoyant, a tad more patient. Discover that you don’t crave your usual 5 p.m. cocktail.
  9. Work late to make up that 30 minutes. Decide that it was totally worth it.


Writer's note: I've read a million of these second-person "how-to" essays but never tried writing my own until today. Constructive criticism welcome!

Comments

  1. D3athLilyNovember 27, 2019 at 10:58 PM

    Yay! I loved this. It was a good fun little piece. My only criticism is that the first step is the only one with italics as your thoughts and it would have broken up the other steps a little to do the same in a few others. Otherwise good first try at the how to!

    ReplyDelete
  2. MarisolNovember 28, 2019 at 3:24 PM

    I really liked this "how-to". I don't know if it was intentional, but I read the first six steps really fast because I was feeling your busy schedule. Then, from step 7 to the end I read it with a lot more calm and enjoying the imagery in the scene of the backyard trampoline.

    ReplyDelete
  3. mspwNovember 29, 2019 at 3:14 PM

    Love "feel your sanity stretching thin." Also love the title. Nice work!

    ReplyDelete

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