S is gone. Again. Yet another business trip to Manila. I curse the day his company decided to outsource most of their engineering and operations to the Philippines.
This is what? The 9th trip in 3 years? I'm pretty sure it's the 7th trip since KB was born. At two weeks a pop, he's missed a good chunk of KB's life. And yet he wonders why KB is so attached to me.
I'm not sure what pisses me off the absolute most about these trips. Could it be the fact that S volunteers for them? No one at his company is forcing him to go. He claims that the engineers in the Manila office work better when they get "face time" from him now and then. Um, why not hire people who are more senior and self-motivated?
Maybe it's the fact that S doesn't do anything to help me out before he leaves on these trips. This is the first time KB and I have planned to stay put the entire time S is out of the country. Previously, we've taken the opportunity to go visit my parents in Arkansas. And usually S is already gone by the time we go, leaving me to get to the airport by myself with a rowdy toddler, car seat, diaper bag, luggage, etc.
Also, normally S just takes a shuttle to the airport, since he flies out of San Francisco around 1 am, and that's too late to be schlepping KB back and forth. Last night, though, he had the bright idea of taking the 8:00 train to SFO so he could hang out in the business lounge for a few hours before his flight. Trouble was, he piddled around here so long that we got to the train station a minute or so too late. The train was at the station when S went in to buy his ticket. By the time he got to the platform, the train was gone.
So what should have been a 30-minute round trip to the train station turned into a 2-hour round trip to SFO. KB fell asleep at 9:15 and slept the whole way home. Got home at 10:00 and somehow managed to get him inside, upstairs, and half-changed into pajamas without waking him up.
Of course, he woke up twice during the night and was up for good at 6:15. Oy.
And now I have a sink full of dishes, dirty pots and pans on the stove, a hamper full of dirty clothes, and more dirty clothes littering the floor of the closet. Thanks for the help, S. He did laundry yesterday, but ONLY washed the clothes he wanted to take to Manila. See previous comment about not doing anything to help out before leaving on these trips.
Today, after naptime, I'm going to *try* to take KB to our favorite little theme park. It's been a while since I've taken him by myself, but I hope he'll cooperate and stay close to me.
The next two weeks are going to be exhausting.
1 comment:
Kids tend to be attached to the ones who nurture them the most. I doubt the two weeks here and there have made that much of an impact.
The first few days are the hardest. The last couple of days are torture too. In between, not that bad. You get yourself into a routine that works. Actually, with the last time Daniel went out to sea, I managed to find an effective way to handle Lucas. His underway helped me learn how to deal with what was becoming an out of control toddler.
Don't worry about the dishes and such. Make sure to get some time where you can just sit down and not have to worry about anything. Two weeks isn't so bad.
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