The Sound of My Brain is Boing, Boing, Boing.
The comedy to me is that I forgot that it was time to put the baby down for a nap. This makes me laugh because it was kind of the answer to all of my problems this morning. See, at the moment i have a different type of schedule each day; some days I have both kids home. Some days I have just the baby, and sometimes, my husband is home to help look after the kids so I can do some work.
Lately, on Thursdays I have the whole day alone with the baby. I can do some work. But the baby needs a lot of attention, which is fine- but infants are a moving target; it is really hard to establish some kind of routine around what they need because it changes every couple of minutes, well ok, pretty often. As a result, I forgot to use his current needs as part of the structure that I NEEDED in order to stop bouncing off the walls in my own head. Now that he is having a nap (who knows if it will be 15 minutes or 60) I can do a little work. That is my WORK time, and when I get some work done then I can move on to some other categories. But instead this morning, the categories kept throwing themselves at me and then all the to do lists inside each category…
I could do some errands. Yeah, baby is happy when we do errands, it keeps us both occupied and I really need to get a pair of walking shoes that fits better. Oh and there are all those other errands.
But I really need to write a blog post, write some e- OH wait, I need to do the laundry and it would be great if I got it foldOH what about the walk I am supposed to take oh wasn't I going to contact my old trainer so I could get some exercises sorted out so I could exercise more and OH what about that mommy-baby group I go to once in a while OH I had better do the dishes HEY can I put the baby down long enough to put the wash in the dryer (hey look there's my cell phone headset in the washer…) GEE it is Thursday I could work on dinner GOSH what about those lunch dates I wanted to set up and that appointment I wanted to set and I really would ignore all of it if I could settle into my work but I can't do that if the baby wants all my attention….
And that attention is why I had decided some time ago that Thursdays I did a LITTLE bit of work at some point during the day when I was able. A couple of things. For the rest I would do stuff with the baby. Yet in this cloud of unstructure today, I forgot that if I went upstairs, rocked him to sleep and put him in his crib, I would have the time, right now.
Apr 22, 2010 @ 22:45:56
It’s wonderful that you can view these situations as a comedy and laugh about them. It had never even crossed my mind that I could laugh at myself. I didn’t have a name (ADD) for my struggles until very recently – well into my daughter’s teens – and unfortunately my tendency is to become paralyzed, blame myself, assume I am inadequate and to anesthetize myself with food or reading or crossword puzzles.
From now on I will attempt to imagine that I am trapped in a musical comedy or a keystone kops type movie….sound track and all.
Apr 27, 2010 @ 11:47:08
just enjoy life, don’t take it seriously.
Sep 01, 2010 @ 15:17:58
As relates to paragraph 4 (where everything goes around in a swirl of “I could do this” or “I could do that” repeat repeat): in a work situation with competing projects/ priorities and people thinking their project is more important, how do you slow your brain down long enough to do anything? To do lists are good for non-swirling times, but not in high pressure. Thx. I’m newly diagnosed with ADHD and found this fabulous website from the ADD coaching site.