Wednesday, April 10, 2013

On working from home and my occasional neediness.

 

 

Brian is going out of town overnight, sometime in the near future, and this is how I feel about it:

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I have been grumpy all week, and downright morose, and making him answer lots of fun questions like, “Will you miss me??” and “But you don’t WANT to go, right??”

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I have gotten spoiled, see, because Brian has been working from home for his NYC company for the past year.

I’m not going to lie, at first I was a little skeptical about him working at home all day.

In case you couldn’t tell, I am in CHARGE around my house and it is my BUSINESS and my WORKPLACE.  I wasn’t sure how having him, the actual head of the household, underfoot would mesh with things.

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But, so far, the pros have been:

- He can satisfy any quick need for attention I might have.  (“how does this shirt look?” “watcha doing?”  “Let’s HUG!”)  Basically, I am friendly little puppy dog and he is my owner.

- He is almost always available for a quick fun fact! (“BRIAN!  Did you know that when they created Central Park, the grass was maintained by a flock of 200 sheep??  Now back to work!”)

- He is available to listen to me whiiiiiiine about our chiiiiiiildren when they are being particularly trying.

 

 

As for the pros for Brian?  Well, see above, people! 

So much time with me!

Fun facts! 

Plus breakfast and lunch and coffee served to him while he works!!

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Now, for the cons:

 

- I feel guilty when he comes out and catches me eating some candy/ice cream I have hidden from him and have no intention of sharing.

 

- I feel guilty when he come out and finds me napping.

 

- Some combination of the two.

 

- Sometimes he is busy and can’t pay attention to me.

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That last one in particular really stings.

Right now, we have a system where I peek in the door, and if he is busy, he doesn’t turn around and/or make eye contact.

And have you seen a friendly puppy when you ignore them?  That is me, sad sad sad, as I slink back to my children and dishes.

So, to lessen the cold-shoulder-induced hurt feelings,  I am thinking that we should come up with some kind of a color-coded system?  Maybe on popsicle sticks that he can hold up over his shoulder?

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Like  GREEN means; Come in and tell me EVERYTHING IMMEDIATELY!

and YELLOW means: YOU are important, my beautiful wife, but is what you are going to tell me important? (yes.)

and RED means: I love you more than life itself, but I am momentarily going to have to resist your charms as much as it hurts.  But here, let me pat you on the head quickly first.

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In closing,

- I wonder why he is needing to go out of town?

- Me + Brian at home all day = LOVE!

- It’s true about Central Park and the sheep.

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5 comments:

Maureen said...

WOW!!! (on so many levels)
Samuels expressions REALLY communicate the depth of your dispair, and I'm sure when Brian sees this post, he will NEVER want to leave home again! You are SO FUNNY and I love you and I LOVE that you love Brian so much :)

Rachel said...

hahaha, your posts are so fun to read. I totally agree about the guilty thing. I have a hard time eating junk or taking a break when Brennan"s home too. But you do have a new baby, so those extra calories are good for the baby and you do need some extra sleep from being up all night, right? Right?

At least he's going out of town for one night. I love it when Brennan goes out of town because it means I can watch my favorite movies and eat all the junk food in the world! It's a day off, from everyone once the kids are in bed! Guilty pleasures are fun! And if you get sad, just be glad that he's gone for only one night, unlike my husband who went to China for 2 weeks just after we moved to Seattle. He's done it twice now. It was not fun.

Jenners said...

Mr. Jenners works from home three days a week. It was a HUGE adjustment (as in I suddently felt I had to do more housework and less loafing -- I always save loud cleaning for when he works at home) and we face the same dilemma with "interuptions" (as he calls them) and "pop-in visits" (as I call them). I like the popsicle stick system!

Lola said...

Everything you've said here is part of why I don't think I could handle having Joel work from home. It'd be like having a hot-from-the-oven pie with ice cream that I'm not allowed to eat!

ter@waaoms said...

the expressions are hilarious!