Wednesday, June 3, 2009

The Sandwich Generation

A few months ago, one of my friends looked at my life and said
Welcome to the sandwich generation
What did she mean by that? Well, I've hit the point in which I need to be responsible for my kids on one side and my mother on the other. I didn't think I was at that stage, but mom's been in the hospital a lot lately, and often in a hospital an hour away. That ends up taking time. Of course, my kids sandwich my life, too. For example, today I got up at 5:30 to take Jon and Will to swimming (yes, they can bike over there, but the normal plan is for me to swim with them except on days like today when I'm too tired). I need to take mom's car to the shop at 7:30. The kids have physicals at 8:30. I need to drive out to Des Moines with mom's cousin to see mom after that. I'm hoping Michelle can get the kids to sports camp at 1, but they can also walk or bike over. Then I need to be back from Des Moines either by 4 pm to pick up the kids from sports camp or by 5:00 to get them ready for baseball. Somewhere in there, I should go shopping. And somewhere in there I'm supposed to fit in my regular work. Agh!

What's the worst part? Knowing that I'm not atypical in having this kind of responsibility.