I normally don't have a problem writing with my three-year-old in the house. She'll sit in my home office and play while I'll work. Occasionally, she'll want to play one of the educational computer games we have for and I'll set her up on my husband's computer. It's rare I have trouble working with her around.My husband has chronic pancreatitis. When he's sick, it does add a degree of difficulty as I'm not only trying to keep him comfortable, but I'm also attempting to keep our daughter and the puppy away from him. It slows down my writing, but generally I can still get some writing done.
However, this weekend has taught me that writing in chaos is nearly impossible. My sister is currently attending college full-time to be a medical office administrator. Between school and taking care of her family, she hasn't had any time for herself in a long time. So when she was offered the opportunity to attend a bike rally over the weekend, I volunteered to babysit my nieces so she could go. They're four and five.
It was a very chaotic weekend. While my daughter is good at playing quietly, my nieces are not. Our puppy tends to sleep a lot, but since my nieces had brought their puppy along, he spent the whole time chasing her around the house while they both barked at each other and anything else that caught their eyes. On top of all the ruckus the kids and dogs were making, my husband got sick and ended up being hospitalized on Friday. Then, my aunt called Saturday night to tell me that my great-grandmother had passed away.
By Sunday, I was ready to pull my hair out. I had planned to write over the weekend, but hadn't had a chance with everything going on. My husband got out of the hospital around lunchtime. On the way to pick him up, my sister called to let me know she was coming back early and ask if I could meet her at three so she could pick up the girls. I ended up rushing home, feeding everyone lunch, then loading them all back in the car for the two hour trip to meet my sister.
By the time I finally made it home Sunday evening and got my daughter in bed, I was so exhausted that I crawled in bed as well. Not a very productive weekend for me unfortunately.
This weekend was a learning experience for me. If I plan to make a career as a freelance writer, I need to be able to work around obstacles that come up.
*Photo by Carl Dwyer
