Saturday was filled with more car paperwork (yes, STILL!) and then kitten give aways. By the time we got home, I had lost all focus completely. I went in and took a nap. When I woke up, still couldn't get my work focus going on. Thankfully, I had worked a few hours that morning already.
Most of the rest of Saturday was spent watching old Bones re-runs on Netflix. I can't help it. the guy that plays Booth... well, I've had a secret crush on him ever since he was Angel. I don't know. The quiet knight in shining armor type is attractive sometimes. At least, when he's someone else's knight in shining armor! I think if I had a knight in shining armor, I'd probably shoot him for being around all the time!
Now last weekend was spent arguing with the Honey and the kids. See, on Mother's Day, I felt about as appreciated as a bank ATM. I had a little mini meltdown, honestly. I don't have them very often, but when I do, it isn't pretty! I wound up spending a TON of money that I didn't really have. I would have had it, if I had advance notice. When my husband told me that he doesn't really see me working, so doesn't really know how hard I work, I decided it was time to take action.
I put my husband to work on one of my contracts, my lowest paying contract. It was really the only one I could have him work on. For one week, he had to work that contract for me. It was long, and tedious, and well, he wasn't making much money at first. But he couldn't do anything else fun that day until he met his monetary goal. (It was a very small one!)
By the time the weekend rolled around again, I think he finally understood. Yes, I work at home. Yes, I work while they are gone or are sleeping. But I work, and I work hard. None of my jobs are extremely simple. Money doesn't just flow through. He got it, I think.
Last night, I'm vegging out watching Bones when I hear water running in the kitchen. My boy was on a camping trip and I really was not looking forward to doing the dishes. Honey did the dishes. Yes, I was taken back a bit. I'm not used to that. Normally, I have to fight with him just to get him to throw his stuff away, and here he was doing the dishes. I was grateful, and extremely so.
So, today, my boy gets home. We have lunch and decide it's time to go get stuff done. Only, boychild is severely sunburned and should not be outside at all. While I'm getting ready to go out and start mowing (riding lawnmower!) my husband cleans out the fridge. We go get gas for the lawnmowers, and return. I do the riding, he does the push mower.
We come inside, and he gets right to washing the dishes from lunch. When I was making dinner, he went in to straighten up, and just be there with me while I made dinner. (I really LIKED that!) Then, after dinner, he did the dishes... again.
Did I forget to mention the extra cuddle time on Friday night? One of his dungeon/raid nights?
So of course, finally, I had to ask what was up. I mean, I'm not used to this! Sure, he was like this before we got married, helpful and cuddly, etc. But hasn't been in a very long while. He told me that working one of my jobs over the past week had given him a new appreciation for what I do, and he said he wanted to help me out a bit to show that appreciation. Then, he sat down and paid bills. Without me fussing about it. Yes, I was shocked!
We work at home so that we can work our careers around our families, instead of working our family around out careers. When we are successful in this, our families tend to not realize that we don't just sit near a computer and watch the money flow in. We work for it, and work hard. We also have to work four times as hard as any person that works in a brick and mortar building for the same amount of money. Then, on top of that, we have to work a thousand times harder just to have the possibility of job advances. The work at home workforce is not often considered for the higher up positions.
All that our families see is that they come home, and we're here to take care of them, or we're vegging out. They know we stay up really very late at night, but they don't realize that we're working while they're sleeping. They know we take a nap during the day but they don't understand that brief nap is so that we can stay up late that night to work. And they know that come payday, we have some money. Between paydays, we have a small amount of emergency cash on hand just in case.
I will do my best in the future to remember that they don't always see me working, so don't understand that I truly am working very hard. I will do my best to let my family know when I'm feeling overwhelmed. After all, a family is a team effort. Every person pitches in. If they don't know that I'm feeling overwhelmed, how are they supposed to know to pitch in?
As for my husband, I don't know how long his new found show of appreciation will last. I'm hoping it lasts for a nice long time. He reminds me now of how he was when he first came out here and when we first got married. He is an amazing and wonderful man that I am truly blessed to have.
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