Oct 26, 2022
My husband just called home to let me know he had scheduled a contractor to come to the house at 11 a.m. the next day.
“Oh, so you’re going to pick Samantha up from school? OK, that was rude of me.
But I just don’t get how you cannot understand my beautiful rainbow colors. If you want a contractor to come to the house, either be here, or get it on the schedule–in a blank spot. (In all fairness, I do realize that there are no blank spots.) When I call to schedule an appointment, I hold my breath.
“Morning or afternoon?” They ask.
“Can you do a week from Friday at 7:45 a.m.?” I croak out weakly.
This is usually met with, “We open at 9,” or “Doctor is in surgery on Fridays.”
“OK, what do you have next month… any Wednesday after 4:30 p.m.?”
Yeah, they don’t like that one, either. OK, just give me what you have, and I’ll figure it out.
Which is all fine as long as child care isn’t involved. But the minute I need to leave the kids with Dad, it now becomes, “OK, I’ll take the appointment,” followed by a call to my husband, followed by me calling back and asking for a different time. Because he has some commitment that is not on the schedule.
“Um, sorry, but my husband is busy at that time I just scheduled…. Yes, I know the appointment is for me, but I assume you don’t want me to bring my children. Can you please give me another time?”
I recently had to schedule a tooth extraction for Samantha, and I did not have child care for Ashley. “Can’t I bring her with me?” (After all, this was a pediatric dentist.) They said I could bring her with me, but I would have to wait in the waiting room with her while my other one went in, alone, for the extraction.
Silly me, I said yes. Then Samantha informed me–with tears and rolling on the floor–that it would definitely not be possible for her to go alone with the dentist, a dentist she loves and trusts and who has pulled her teeth in the past.
So there I was, calling the dentist’s office again: “Um, what else do you have because Samantha is not going for it?”
“Extractions are only on Tuesdays.”
OK. So then we had to get Grandma involved.
And, silly me, I imagined I would drop off Ashley with Grandma and take Samantha to her appointment. But no. All four of us went to the appointment. Then Ashley and Grandma bought dog treats and Frappuccinos while Samantha and I went in for the appointment.
And all the while, there was Daddy, at work. In ignorance and bliss. Completely unaffected by The Schedule.
He doesn’t even have his work schedule on the white board because it is the SAME every week. He has a computer printout. No one ever messes with his work schedule. It is written indelibly in laser printer toner. We all just work around it. With our erasable markers.
And yet, we somehow make it work. I sometimes think, “Why am I so busy? I don’t want to be this busy. What am I doing wrong?”
But it’s the kids. They just need me. Like all the time. Every day.
So here we are with The Schedule.
And I would not change a thing.
