Is it Monday already?

I've got two good friends who have had babies in the last couple of weeks, and both little ones are now in special care - Leo is less than a week old; has a congenital heart defect and is now recovering from surgery. Ella has a serious oesophageal problem and is in hospital preparing for surgery.

At the risk of sounding hokey, it does you good sometimes to count your blessings, so  this week Flea (my three year old) and I took the weekend off and spent some time together. It's the first weekend in a long time I haven't opened the laptop until after 7pm and I can't get over how happy Flea was to have me to herself. There was quite a lot of lying on the floor making small toys talk, and for some reason my child has decided she is called "thomas" and spent the entire weekend saying things like: "Excuse me, Thomas' Mummy, please can I have a sandwich?" All good for the soul.

Of course, this does mean I didn't finish the major book project I was planning on doing, and that quick newsletter thing? I'll have to get up early tomorrow to finish that. Oh, and that case study for the American client. I'll have to do that in the morning after the school run, I guess. And I've got a supplement thing for a broadsheet to work on. I'm gonna spend the next month really paying for that weekend off, aren't I? Still worth it, though.

Comments

[katie moffat]

Sorry to hear about the little tots, hope they start to recover soon.

I think that being a working parent is largely about guilt - either you feel guilty for not spending enough time with the kids or you feel guilty for not focusing on work as you should. It's very difficult. Working until 1am or getting up at 5am becomes normal and it's easy to forget that it's very far from being normal. Oh for the luxury of being able to work until something is finished and not have to stop to cook fishfingers, wash faces or pick up toys. But then again, I wouldn't have it any other way.

[Sally Whittle]

Katie

Yes, I sometimes catch myself "treating" myself to a couple of hours of TV in the evening, and then I'll suddenly remember I used to do that all the time before I had the offspring. Your view of normal as a freelancer/parent does get pretty warped, I think.

You'd think, given my hectic life, I'd be incredibly disciplined during office hours and able to be productive and not waste time on Facebook/Twitter/GoogleReader/Journobiz/UKPRESS/Facebook (yes, again, in case someone has posted some URGENT photos in the last hour), wouldn't you?

Total number of articles planned for this morning: 5
Total number written so far: 0.5

FAIL.