A Week in the Life: L, a part-time physician and toddler mom shares
L shares her week, which swung from illness and pregnancy fatigue to moments of parenting blis. She extolls the virtues of part-time work + Bluey.
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What’s your kid/family situation?
My husband, 21-month-old daughter and I'm currently pregnant. We live in a Midwest state capital.
What is your job situation? (Job, hours, WFH vs butts in seat)
I'm a part-time physician. I see patients in person 8-5 Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Tuesdays and Thursdays I work from home in the mornings/during nap time. I finish up charting, take meetings, do continuing education/maintenance of certification, answer my emails etc. I also work 12 weekends a year, but this wasn't one of those weeks. My husband is butt in seat 7 am - 5 pm Monday - Friday.
What's your childcare situation? (daycare, wraparound care, nanny, magical grandparents)
Daycare. I always do morning drop off at about 7:30 am. On Mon/Wed/Fri my husband does pick up at 5:15 pm. Tu/Th I pick up at 12:00 pm.
For sick days, my husband covers Mon/Wed/Fri and I cover Tu/Th. My mother-in-law will also help with sick days, which is wonderful. (Editor’s Note: This is a brilliant system!)
A Week in the Life
Monday
Husband has a GI bug so he's home sick. Every weekday, I wake up at 6:00 am, get ready for work and wake my daughter up at 7:00 am. Husband wakes up at 5:30 am and is out the door at 6:45 am. Daycare is close by and provides all meals (which is amazing) so I just get her dressed and we head out. I also do pick up today too since he's sick, so I race over after my last patient and get her at about 5:20 pm. I feed her dinner immediately after, then we play from 6-7, before starting the bedtime routine at 7:00 pm.
She's in bed at 7:30 pm. I have a lot of nausea/food aversions with this pregnancy, so I haven't really been eating dinner. I clean up some, talk to Husband and read before getting ready for bed at 9:30 pm.
Tuesday
Husband is still home sick.
I have an OB appointment today so spend most of my morning doing that. I'm also currently chairing a work committee so I spend the in-between times doing tasks for that. I pick my daughter up from daycare at 12:00 pm. She's already had lunch. She usually naps from 12:30 - 3:30 pm. I was planning on charting during naptime today, but instead, I've suddenly caught the GI illness. I hang out in the bedroom/bathroom for the rest of the evening. Thankfully, my husband is feeling slightly better so he takes care of daughter between 3:30 and 7:30 pm (I learn later there was a lot of Bluey involved).
Wednesday
I call in sick. Husband does drop off, work and pick up. I'm feeling well enough to help with the evening routine. After bedtime, we just hang out together and watch TV until getting ready for bed ourselves at 9:30.
Thursday
Back to our normal states of health and normal routine. I stop by the grocery store on my way home from daycare drop off, then spend an hour doing life maintenance stuff (laundry, sending emails, collecting some info for our financial advisor) before checking in with my office manager. One of my patients had a crisis yesterday, so I arrange to meet virtually with our social work team during my daughter's nap time. I wind up spending a couple of hours on that. It's a gorgeous day, so when my daughter wakes up from her nap we spend the afternoon playing both inside and outside. I feed her dinner at about 5:20 pm as my husband arrives home. After she's done eating, we set up her outdoor water table and spend the rest of the evening outside, eating popsicles and playing until bedtime. My husband watches TV while I read my book until we go to bed.
Friday
A hectic day at work. I arrive home at 5:45 pm to my daughter eating dinner. My husband goes to work out in our garage. On a normal week, he'll work out about 3 evenings per week, getting done either at 6:15 or 7:00 pm depending on what workout he does. I finish up getting Daughter fed, do bath time at 6:30 pm and then my husband joins for the bedtime routine. We watch the first half of the new Ant Man as our "date night" before giving in to exhaustion and going to bed.
The Weekend
Saturday- We all sleep in- my husband until 7:00 am and me and my daughter until 8:00 am. This is normal for me, but weird for both of them. My husband goes to the grocery store to do the big weekly shopping trip. I take my daughter with me to have breakfast with a friend. Husband works out and cleans while we're gone. During nap time, we have a meeting with our financial advisor and then spend the rest of the nap implementing his recommendations. The three of us go out for dinner at 5:00 pm. After bedtime, we finish the rest of Ant Man.
Sunday- We all wake up at about 7:00 am. I do about an hour's worth of work in the morning to catch up from some of the chaos of the week while my husband handles breakfast. It's a cold and miserable day, so I take my daughter to the local children's museum in the morning. Husband does meal prep and more housework while we're gone. We come home for lunch (leftovers from last night's dinner). I nap while my daughter does. In the afternoon we play and Facetime my parents who are out of state. We do the dinner-bath-bed routine as a family and then chill until starting to get ready for bed ourselves at 9:30.
Reflections
What was your biggest success this week?
Thursday evening was just so great. It's cheesy but I felt blessed to be enjoying such a nice day with my beautiful, happy family.
What was your biggest obstacle?
This week it was GI illnesses! Most weeks lately it's been the exhaustion that comes with pregnancy.
How are you making it work?
Part-time for me has been hugely beneficial. I now average 32 hours a week. When I was full time it was 50 hours/week and always felt like my family always got the exhausted, and emotionally drained me. I wish a 30-hour work week was the norm for everyone.
Also, Bluey. Unabashedly- Bluey.
On working motherhood
This is probably preaching to the choir, but I’m surprised by how much I love being a working Mom. Spending time with my daughter makes me really appreciate work- using my brain, conversing with adults, and being able to have food and drink that I don’t have to share with a tiny, adorable dictator. And spending time at work makes me miss my daughter and love her constant cuddles and requests for my undivided attention.
Well done, I can so relate. A full time working mother, with 2 kids (one in pre-school, one in daycare still), a traveling for business partner and a cat. Keep the submissions coming, happy to hear that I'm not alone.