Multi-Tasking

If you are pregnant and have another child, you are going to become a multi-tasker, like it or not. Of course, everyone is a multi-tasker in the literal sense. We take care of ourselves, while keeping a house and going to a job and enhancing our relationships. Add in to that mix children, and the multi-tasking just expanded. Add a pregnancy, and it just ballooned. Tomorrow I will be blowing up balloons for my daughter's school birthday party. Tonight, I made a cake, a Dora castle cake. It was no easy task, because my cat was getting in the way. My daughter helped at every stage of the process, but I spent most of the time making sure she didn't spill, drop, or knock over anything. I also needed to get dinner on the table and finish up her gift bags. Needless to say, a lot frosting ended up on the our legs, the floor, and in our hair. During those moments, the feeling of being overwhelmed crept in. For a second, I really thought I was going to lose it. Thank goodness the phone didn't ring and the doorbell didn't sound. I would have flipped out, likely. At one point, I dropped a cupcake and yelled out in exasperation. It was my daughter who told me to calm down. So getting ready for a birthday for one child while pregnant with another isn't as easy as I thought it would be. And I only have one other child? What about those women with several children all within 15 months of each other? You don't hear about them slowly losing it as tasks need to be done while children require their attention. Is it because at 46 I was used to having things go relatively smoothly and I now cannot handle the multi-tasking that comes along with child-rearing? Those women didn't complain and certainly didn't blog about it. Here I am doing just that. I had to share my multi-tasking experience tonight. I had better get used to it because once child number two arrives, I will be in for some major MT'ing. Frosting on the floor, dishes piled in the sink, and a four-year old tugging at my skirt are going to be nothing compared to what's in store for me. I had better save my energy as best I can because 46 year-olds start losing their energy even in any best case scenario. Having a baby at 46 with a four-year old by my side is going to be one big exercise in strength, patience, perseverance, creativity, and pacing. I think patience and physical strength will lead the pack of character features that are going to be asked of me in four months. The multi-tasking required by mothers without housekeepers or nannies far exceeds anything seen in the professional world. Mothers' natural course of action should be to become CEO's because their multi-tasking skills will have been perfected by the time their youngest one reaches five years of age.  Hmmmm, food for thought. Watch out, Gerber's chief.