Wisdom from the old Roseanne show?

Remember that show, Roseanne?  The average family being two working parents and three reasonably normal children.  The usual additions of less than ordinary friends and relatives.  Although I would generally never have gained any wisdom from this show, I did once. 

It was a usual episode of the ups and downs of daily life of a busy family trying to get 36 hours of work done in a 24 hour period.  Roseanne, the mom, is trying to get an answer from DJ, the youngest.  She has asked him a question and is now wanting an answer.  DJ finally says that why should he answer, he hasn't talked in three days and no one has noticed.

I have often wondered if this could happen in a busy household, and I think it could.  Just because he isn't talking doesn't mean that he isn't looking at you when you are talking, nor does it mean that he isn't doing what you just asked, like homework.   Maybe when he didn't say good night back, you either didn't notice, or maybe you thought he didn't hear you.   He's not talking to his older sisters, cause they don't really talk to him anyways.

Often my kids and I have great conversations in the car on the way to school.  But I've had jobs where I started before they got up and ended after they went to bed.  When I worked two full time jobs, I still saw the kids in the morning and drove them to school, but when I returned at 11 pm at night, they were in bed.  What if one of them had not talked to me for three days?  I'm sure I would have noticed, I'm always talking to them about something.  But what if my day job had started earlier?

Daycare Dilemmas

I have had three sitters in one day.  I sometimes needed three in order the work two full time jobs.  It went like this:  I drop my little boys off at daycare, who then takes them to school in the morning, and back to the daycare in the afternoon.  Afterschool, around 3 - 4 pm, Brittney, a high school student, picks them up from daycare and takes them to our home.  Around this time, I am leaving one job, changing into a uniform, and going to another job.  After finishing at the second job, it is between 10 - 1130 pm, and Brittney needs a ride home and the kids are asleep.  I call my neighbor, and one of her daughters, Sarah or Ashley, comes over and watches the kids while I drive Brittney home, takes 20 minutes.  That's 3 babysitters!

I remember once getting out of bed on a Sunday, and almost confused as I didn't have a job to go to that day.  I looked at my calendar, I had had ONE day off in 42 days!

Sometimes, I couldn't get a babysitter for Saturdays.  As the girls would be older and get real paying jobs.   And I would just have to take that day off.  Luckily, there were other people that could cover for me. 

Needless to say, I don't ever want to work 2 full time jobs again, but I do take temporary full time jobs, like the evening and weekend shifts when there is an Election.




Of course, there is another alternative, and that is to check out further educational possibilities. Then you won't need two jobs.