For Mother’s Day this year I would like a long nap please.
*And a haircut, possibly during said nap.
Leo sleeps through sometimes.
Other times. Not.
I found this in my notes:
April 2022. “Tired Mother”:
It’s late in the afternoon and I’ve snuck upstairs to lie down. I do this occasionally, when it’s been a long day of just me and the children.
Leo is having a danger-nap (a nap that shouldn’t be allowed because it’s dangerously close to bedtime but that would be equally foolish/perhaps even impossible to attempt to wake him from. One is now screwed either way.) And Maia is happily designing a book-mark.
It is in these moments, these impromptu pockets of free time, where my mind begins to whir.
How do I BEST use this toddler-free time?!
More laundry? Clear the kitchen? Tidy toys? Dust more frames? Prep dinner? DO ALL OF THE THINGS?!
Or even.. Read my book? Finally start my gratitude journal…
I instinctively lie down.
“No I am NOT going to nap. I want to USE this time.” I think to myself.
I pick up a play, Constellations by Nick Payne.
“I’m going to read this ENTIRE play”. A satisfying thought.
It rests on my lap, in my hands, as I gently close my eyes.
“Just for a second.”
Maia’s teachers now mock me for the day I slept through my alarm, missing pick-up entirely:
“Sorry I don’t always write in her reading record…” I said at parents evening.
“Oh no don’t worry! You’ve got a lot on your plate with a little one..You might be…having a nap!”.
The Colourful Kind 