Precious, Pressured, Weekend

The negotiations started on Wednesday.

"So, what do we need to do this weekend?"

"Well, I have laundry, bills, and I have to fix the sprinklers again. I also wanted to try to fit 9 holes in- maybe we can all go again like last weekend?"

My husband referred to our creative and moderately successful bid to get 9 holes of (admittedly bad) golf packed into our weekend without a) the expense of a babysitter and b) losing precious time with our 2 kids. Despite the 7am tee time, it worked pretty well; they caught tadpoles and drove the cart when nobody was looking, and a grand time was had by all until it got really hot.

"Yeah," I said, "that would be great. I have to get the groceries, cook, clean out the craft room, and work on a proposal for the Dean. Oh, and J has a birthday party on Sunday- are you taking her?"

"I took her to the last one, so I think it's your turn- sorry..."

"Oh, yeah. Oops! I also have to go get a blood draw for Dr. S. Saturday since the Lab was closed by the time I got there from the office on Wednesday. It really chaps me that they closed 4 minutes before I got there and would not let me in. Who gets to close at 4, after all?"

"Okay, so when can we play golf?"

"Well, I don't know. I'd also like to get over to visit my folks sometime..."

"Well crap. We don't have time to do anything. I wish we had more time on the weekends- it all gets eaten up with minutia."

Another less-than-constructive conversation about packing as much as possible into a weekend. The joys of the 2-full-time working parent household. Weekend time is so precious, yet so pressured with "stuff"- it's hard not to get a little cranky, especially when you start to look forward to the weekend and talk about it, but at the end of a busy, hot, traffic and meeting-filled Wednesday when your feet hurt and you're still behind on your email.

Somehow, this morning, in the cool grey light of the morning, husband and I kept talking about *the plan* for the weekend, and it seemed less onerous. We'll fit the golf in if we can, and if the kids want to go- they are good sports to go, and besides, it's pretty entertaining to watch Mommy's short game. As we laid in bed, whispering to not wake our offspring and remembering how lucky we are to have so much choice in our lives, frankly, it all became okay. In fact, we remembered that the kids have plans for a lemonade stand today- one more thing to do, but today, not a big deal.

Lesson learned? Plan weekends less- we know what we have to do- talking about it only emphasizes the number of items. Regardless of when we negotiate, by the end of the weekend, we'll have gotten most of the "have-tos" done, but not all, and that will be okay because we'll have had some great, lukewarm, lemonade and maybe a decent putt or two if we're lucky.

Enjoy the weekend.