Thursday, September 23, 2004

Old Life + New Life = Sheer Exhaustion

We adopted our son from Ukraine this past January when he was 19 months old. Needless to say, I'm a relatively "new mom" and I've spent the last nine months at home getting to know him and seeing him flourish from a tiny, malnourished baby to a bright, beautiful and active little two year-old boy who, at the moment, is singing the "Backpack" song from Dora the Explorer.

Prior to finding our son, I spent 16 years in advertising and PR--fields which, in my opinion, are better left for 20-somethings who have more drive, ambition, and that inner gooey, rubbery stuff we all possess at a young age that enables shit to literally bounce right off of us. I was pretty happy to get out of the business--though I managed to work on a few cool accounts and was able to "retire" somewhat fulfilled.

During these last few months, though, I've discovered that when my former life interferes with my current life, it's as if two worlds are colliding and I'm caught right in the middle.

For example, a few days ago, a former client of mine representing one of the world's largest food manufacturers called me up and asked me to help out on a project they were working on. They needed someone so desperately they didn't care that I'd be working from home in my Paul Frank jammies with my little guy ramming our dog with his Mega Bloc dump truck in the background.

So there I was--on the phone with one of the top radio stations in NYC, trying to negotiate a radio buy and basically trying to sound in control when all of a sudden my son finds me in my hiding spot on the other side of the house yelling, "MAAAAAAAA-MAAAAA! Maaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh-maaaaaaaaah! There she is! Hi Mama!"

The radio rep on the other end just sniggered...and I knew he was going to be a bastard on the final deal. I was pretty embarrassed.

"Can you tell I work out of my house?" I asked innocently.
"Um, yeah. But you're lucky!" he replied.

Don't get me wrong--I love being a stay-at-home mom and I love my son to pieces. In theory, it gives me time to write...which in theory, is what I do. But I haven't exactly yet found my groove. This mommy business is hard work! Really hard! Bless you mamas who have MORE THAN ONE because I am exhausted with just the one

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hear you on this one. I own a catering business, write a column for a monthly magazine and do some freelance writing on the side. I swore that I'd keep working with my daughter with me. She was born in February. It's harder than I ever imagined. Most days, I spend all day doing Mommy stuff, only put in a full workday after she goes to bed. It's exhausting, but at the same time, I get to do a job I love and I'm not missing out on her babyhood.

When she was two months old, we were doing some research for an article that involved exploring some interesting little gourmet shops. I hadn't intended to talk to anyone about what I was doing, but one of the shop owners had her 1-year-old in the store, so I felt ok about talking business with my kiddo dangling from her Baby Bjorn around my neck. Of course, that's when she took the juiciest, loudest, most stinky crap of her entire life. I kid you not - it echoed it was so loud!

I'm such a professional.

Have you posted about your son's adoption? I'd love to read about it.

Poppy
www.poppymom.com

LeFemmeMonkita said...

Yikes that's a tough one to beat!!!! Ha ha!!! But hey--at least it wasn't YOU who took the juicy crap!!! :-)

Our adoption story can be found at:
http://puttie.blogspot.com

Thanks for reading, Poppy!