I posted several years ago how I hated my mother telling me “I don’t know how you do it” when I described my life as a working mom. And how I vowed I would never say to my children “I don’t know how you do it.”
But I am now at that stage of life where I wonder how my kids do it. I haven’t yet said “I don’t know how you do it,” but I have to bite my tongue to avoid it.
My daughter has a demanding job, yet she decided to use of the pandemic years to get an advanced law degree. In mid-March, she had three papers to write for her last term while she continued working.
She followed the successful completion of her degree program with shoulder surgery in late March. The surgery was on a Tuesday. The following Sunday, she and her boyfriend moved into a new house. So while writing the three papers, she’d been packing up the old house with a shoulder injury caused by breaking up a dog fight.
Then, about ten days after she moved, after some touch-up work and cleaning, her former house went on the market. . . . the same day she and her boyfriend left for a week-long ski vacation. Her sole concession to the shoulder injury has been that she will not ski on this vacation, but she skied all winter between dog-fight injury and surgery.
I have said in every phone call recently “Be careful” and “Don’t do too much,” which probably annoys her as much as my mother’s “I don’t know how you do it” annoyed me.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the continent, my son and his wife have been fixing up a house built in 1901. First, came plumbing work and a new air conditioning system. Then the electrical system, which didn’t date back quite to 1901, but wasn’t too much newer. And the foundation also needs a little work.
Their house has a tenant unit, so they are now landlords as well as homeowners. Both of them have done a lot of DIY work on their unit as well as the tenant unit. Plus, my son has decided to become a gardener. (This is the kid that took two days to mow the lawn as a teenager.)
His conversations revolve around raised beds and mulch. I don’t tell him much, because I know nothing about gardening. I just listen, with a lot of “uh-huhs” thrown in.
Oh, and now he’s taking on a new role at work.
I am thrilled that my children are so active. I want them to have full and happy lives. But I don’t know how they do it.
What sayings of your parents do you find yourself repeating?
I find myself wondering the same thing. “How do they do it?” We did it, of course … somehow, but I’m exhausted just thinking about it, now. A life filled with mini-tornadoes, or is it “many tornadoes.”
Pam, it’s many mini-tornadoes, with a few Oz-sized tornadoes thrown in.
Theresa
If you hadn’t said it at the end, I would have. One of the sayings I find myself saying now (even though I laughed at great-grandma when she said it) is “I’ve lived too long. Ha! She said it about microwaves, cell phones, and the new money when it came out. She’s been gone a long time now, so she would still be saying it with chip cards, touch pay, and now the new chip insert!
Kathy, that’s a new one for me. Maybe I haven’t lived too long yet!
Theresa
Why does this post remind me of those hilarious Progressive commercials? “Because I said so, that’s why.” I just can’t seem to avoid using this one from time to time, even when I chat with a good friend.
I, too, am guilty of “because I said so”. But I don’t think I’ve said it as often as my parents did.:)
Wow! Neat houses! I agree with you. I don’t know how they do it!