Today is a PD day for the younger two kids – I am working from home today, save for a chunk of the afternoon where I have to be at one of our outreach locations for an hour.
This morning, after Oldest One was out the door and the younger two were awake and eating breakfast, I reminded the kids that I was working from home – so, despite my physical presence, they should not expect me to be attentive and should try to keep the volume down inside the house. I am available for urgent issues – otherwise they need to follow the usual rules and routines. I suggested they go sledding.
I usually start working before 9 am when I’m at home – because I recognize that there will be a few unavoidable interruptions. Today I was working a bit before 8 am.
Between 9:30 and 11:30 – a span of two hours – I have been interrupted for the following very urgent questions/situations:
- a child who has been told to wear snowpants for sledding informed me that he has no idea where his snowpants actually are and then stood outside in the snow weeping because he couldn’t go sledding without them.
- the dogs needed to go out, and back in, and out, and back in. It’s cold, y’see, so they don’t want to stay outside long enough to actually do what needs to be done… but, once inside and thawed, they realize that they do still need to pee and, ohmygod, now it’s urgent.
- the internet stopped working and I had to text Coffee to kick start it for me
- one kid came to ask if I could make him some hot chocolate
- the other kid came to ask if he could make some hot chocolate for himself
- a kid showed up to ask if he could make his lunch earlier than usual
- a kid came to ask if he could play on his laptop for an hour or two
- a kid came to tell me that his brother did not sign out of the playroom when he was finished in there
- an hour after eating it, a kid came to tell me how good the oatmeal was this morning and to thank me for making it for him
- Saul Goodman started making piteous mewing sounds that caused me to go looking for him because I thought he was locked in a room. He was sitting on the stairs and seemed pleased to see me when I finally ‘found’ him.
- I had to hide all of the bodies in the freezer
I feel better now that I’ve taken an actual scheduled, planned break. Jeeeez. It’s a miracle I’ve gotten anything done at all today – but I’ve been surprisingly productive.
Clearly the ADD has some benefits.
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This made me smile:
- an hour after eating it, a kid came to tell me how good the oatmeal was this morning and to thank me for making it for him
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A Dilbert strip came out soon after I started working from home, had it on the office wall forever…
CAPTION: What the Work-At-Home Person Says
DILBERT: Don’t disturb me unless the house is on fire.CAPTION: What the Rest of the Household Hears
DILBERT: I am your servant. My specialty is killing spiders.CAPTION: What the Spiders Hear
DILBERT: The house is full of wounded flies -
Does your cat usually catch a lot of mice and do you enjoy eating them?
What kind of sauce do you stew ‘em with?I usually use an exotic herb called Marihuana.
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Thank you for the laugh. What does “sign out” of the playroom mean?
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You have a freezer big enough to hold ALL the bodies? Smart move. Planning ahead obviously. When I worked at home in Canada, Ella, who had a “real” job always assumed I had nothing to do so could run errands as she did when she was a stay at home mom. Our freezer wasn’t big enough.
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