My new part-time job

The best way ensure success with my book project is to treat it as an actual job. Not some extra-curricular activity. Not time when I'm doing other important stuff, like building "roads" out of Play-Doh so that the Matchbox cars can get "stuck" in the "mud." I need to set myself up for success. This means carving out hours that I need to work. Every. Single. Day. Or at least three days a week. If I want to accomplish this, I need to treat it with the respect and attention it deserves. I love Sarah's idea of hiring a nanny, but there's something about that that seems decadent. But, again, this isn't a treat so that I can lounge around. This is so that I can work!

Yes, part of my hesitation is that feeling that hiring help is a decadence. Another part is that I have a hard time relinquishing control of my kids' lives. What they learn. Who they are learning from. This is partially why it took me so long to enroll Preschooler in Chief in preschool. When it's just me, I get to be the primary source of the things that fills my kids' heads. What songs they sing. What toys stimulate their brains. How they talk with other people. I guess I'm a bit of a control freak.

You see, since PIC started school, he has definitely picked up some new behaviors. His favorite new expression is, "No Fair!" He must either working through some frustrations of being in a new environment or just totally exhausted at the end of the day. The result is not fun. My mother in law, who is a preschool teacher in New York, emailed some thoughts:

My first inclination is to think he is seeing other behavior and he is modeling it...Either that, or the whole preschool experience is overwhelming or exciting him too much and he does not know how to come down after all the excitement...[S]ometimes kids start being obnoxious at home with parents after the first few weeks of school. They act like they are in charge.

That is most certainly happening here. And I wonder if hiring help for some of the other time would exacerbate the problem. Still, something's gotta give if my grand plan is going to come together. I just don't want it to happen at the expense of my kid's sanity. Although not pursuing my goals will definitely impact my sanity. And subsequently, my kids.