Meet Kara: Just Another Frantic Monday

I’m Kara, and the newest contributor to Fairfield County Mom. I work full-time as an attorney and am a mom to two sweet girls, M (almost three years old) and Z (9 months).

And, while most of the working mom population is trying to figure out whether to lean in, lean out, or recline, I find that most days, I spin around in circles. Here is a glimpse into a typical weekday to get to know me a little better.

At 5:35 a.m., my alarm goes off. Between 5:35 and 6:24, I get ready for work in semi-darkness before anyone in the house, including my husband, is awake. This carefully scheduled 49 minutes includes showering, make-up applying, and pumping (I’m still nursing Z).

It does not contemplate snooze button hitting or blank staring at the wall of clothes in my closet, both of which occur far more frequently than I care to admit. There may also be the occasional turning on more lights than necessary or dropping of the hair dryer, which my husband has accused me of doing on purpose. He may or may not be right.

At 6:24 a.m. or thereabouts, I head to the train station and await the fate that the MTA gods will deliver to me. Metro-North is currently not known for its punctuality. At 6:34, my train arrives (or not). Eventually, I board a train that, more or less, will arrive at Grand Central in an hour. I usually spend that time preparing for my day, including writing and responding to emails or reviewing materials that are certain to be discussed during the many meetings that will no doubt populate my calendar even if they have not yet been scheduled. I am sure the well-established physics principle, “empty time will fill with meetings in record time,” is at work here.

I usually arrive at my desk before 8:00 a.m. and spend the next several hours attending meetings, participating in conference calls, or meeting with my team. Sometime between noon and 2:00 p.m. I manage to eat lunch, ranging from something quick from somewhere within a block of the office to something quick from our office cafeteria. No matter the source, it is always inhaled at my desk. After lunch, until 4:00 p.m., I do more of the same: attending meetings, participating in conference calls, or meeting with my team. Have you seen the movie Groundhog Day?

Between 4:15 and 4:30 p.m. I do what I like to call the “Two Block Mad Dash to the Train,” which counts as my cardio depending on what the rest of the evening holds for me. I usually catch the 4:30 train, so I am home around 5:45 to fix dinner for M and Z.

After dinner currently consists of living room dance parties. M is a big fan of The Jackson Five, particularly “The ABC Song” (as in “Easy as 1, 2, 3,” not that other well-known alphabet song). Around 7:30 p.m., my husband arrives home, and we begin bedtime, for which we have adopted a divide-and-conquer strategy.

I feed Z, rock her, and put her down to sleep around 8:00 p.m. (Remember reading all those sleep books that recommend just putting a baby down and rubbing their back or recall looking skeptically at photos of friend’s babies that had “allegedly” fallen asleep in their bouncy seats … believe it or not, they do exist; Z is that baby!). While taking care of Z, my husband is playing with and reading to M, and I usually join them for some snuggling or “one more” book.

Post 8:30 p.m. is a little like a “choose your own adventure” book, depending on work demands, my energy or stress level, or my level of hunger or tiredness. Thus, it can consist of a work-out in our basement and a late dinner (and, by dinner, I mean anything from something most normal people would consider a meal to a bowl of cereal), logging some additional hours for work, working on a personal project (like my photography), or catching up with family and friends and then dinner; or just dinner (which still often consists of the aforementioned options).

Finally, instead of doing the responsible thing and going to bed at a decent hour, sometime between 10:00 and 10:30 p.m., you will find me in an unconscious puddle on our sofa. At this point, my husband takes the remote and puts on a show he wants to watch instead of the episode of House Hunters that we have seen five times.

Although it often seems like a lot of work, I happily get up and do it all over again because of the joy my family brings me and the satisfaction and fulfillment I get from my work.