Clown and mother
I am making myself crazy this weekend trying to get costumes together for one clown event and organizing childcare coverage to enable participation in another while at the same time driving the the family’s summer weekend activities.
There is an argument to be made for not bothering to work outside the home because the effort outweighs the financial gain, but not being part of the larger world produces its own kind of crazy.
My Kid is looking forward to a week of Curious Jane science camp for girls in Brooklyn. How convenient for me because another clown has organized a 4-day workshop in a studio in Manhattan the same week. How easy it will be for me to drop off My Kid at 9:00 am and sail on into the city for several hours of serious clown work before I pick her up at 3:30 (or 5:30 if I pay extra for an extended day.)
It’ll be great!
Not!
The pieces don’t quite fit together.
I’m not the one who booked the studio time which is as follows:
AUG 2 (2p-6p)
AUG 3 (2p-6p)
AUG 4 (3p-7p)
AUG 5 (6p-10p)
Well, Sugar-Honey-Iced-Tea!!!! (As My Kid and her friends would say.)
No matter how I slice it, My Kid needs to be picked up in Brooklyn at either 3:30 or 5:30 right in the middle of the studio clown time in Manhattan.
But, I’ve got a week to figure it out. I could end up hiring a babysitter for 3 or 4 hours just to cover a 30 minute gap.
It’s possible, but only just and that’s because I’ve only one kid to worry about. Any more than that and this particular studio time with other clowns wouldn’t even be an option to consider. My little family is alone here in the city. I have to pay babysitters or find friends (and we don’t yet know anyone else who will be attending the same camp as My Kid.
Last week when we were on vacation with my parents and my sister and my brother and his kids life seemed so easy. The Husband and I could go for a walk and have a conversation and not worry at all about My Kid because there were always other adults around to keep an eye on her.
Sigh.
So we’re flying out of NYC on Friday to go to Seattle to fly to Hawaii for the big 50th Wedding Anniversary Milti-family/Multi-generational vacation. And a lovely concierge woman from Hilton Waikaloa just called me on the phone to confirm my plans. AND I am afraid I sounded insane and incoherent because this is the fourth day I have spent cooped-up I mean relaxing with my lovely family.
The Husband is pointing out all the indications of phrasings of the English/American language in which I may not have been clear and precise in stating my preference for the ocean view over the standard apartment building hotel room. I hope I was clear. I hope I speak English (it’s not a given because I’m a clown and we speak… well, we speak clown) and I am not to be trusted when one wants to be clear and rational.
Just sayin’…
It’s too hot in Brooklyn today. We are all insane freaks…
Packing. Ugh!
It’s a big job, even if and maybe especially if one is not planning to take very much.
My husband, daughter and I are going to meet my family in Hawaii for a multi-family multi-generational vacation in honor of my parent’s 50th Wedding Anniversary.
It should be easy for us to pack our tiny bathing suits, flip-flops and sun-dresses into rolling carry-on suitcases, except that we are taking a side trip to Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park and the website says we need sturdy soled-shoes and long pants. We might visit the snow covered mountain, Mauna Kea, and on the way home we will spend several days in Seattle, which is famous for rain. I think we need coats! How can we prepare for all that in carry-on luggage?
Another complication for us, since we are planning on carry-on luggage, and we’re not allowed more than 3 oz of anything liquid-ish is this; how can I possibly get enough of our favorite brands of sunscreen to Hawaii. Do I buy it there? What if I can’t find our favorite brands. We can’t use just any sunscreen. I tried that once and My Kid had an allergic reaction that led her to the conclusion that she didn’t like to swim in the ocean because the combination of sunscreen and salt water burned her skin.
We leave a week from today. My days from now until then will be all about packing. Ideally we will have a packing dress rehearsal this weekend and I will finesse the details and do the necessary laundry to finis the job after the weekend while my kid is at soccer day camp.
I’ve been to several other mom’s apartments this week. The ones with multiple children and multiple-day packing projects. I’ve seen these projects. The twenty piles of pink and purple t-shirts and shorts. Two, three, even 4 or 5 piles for each kid; Packing for 3 kids to stay with relatives in Europe. Packing for 3 kids to live on a sailboat for the summer. Packing one kid for camp from a prescribed list and requiring a name tag attached to every single item of clothing. (Do they really mean a label on each and every sock?) Packing for 2 kids to visit multiple relatives on multiple continents with appropriate outfits for each child for both urban society and back-country hiking. Aghhhh!
During the last week of school one of the moms on the playground commented that she was wishing school wasn’t over so soon (On June 28!) because she wasn’t done packing.
This summer when she’s not clowning, Kathie is packing in Brooklyn.
This was an original NYC Moms Blog post.