It was a Sunday afternoon not too long ago (less than 48 hours from when this column would be printed) and I was getting ready to head to the office to try to get some writing done, followed by the weekly grocery shopping trip.
Putting on my jacket and boots on a Sunday afternoon to head to work is sometimes hard, and last Sunday was no different. My two-year-old son certainly has a way of melting my heart when he looks up at me and says “no mom, stay home?” Most times I give in, and opt to write from home, which usually results in me having way more work to do on a Monday morning than I should have.
In this case, I couldn’t stay home, we really needed groceries and I really had a lot of writing to do. So instead of giving in, I asked my little Brodie if he wanted to come to work with mommy. He responded quite enthusiastically and ran to get dressed so he could tag along.
We were hardly out of the driveway when I noticed my indecisive two-year-old was having a slight change of heart as he asked if we could go to Nanny’s house instead of town. I said no and we kept driving.
As we arrived at the office 20 minutes later and Brodie was startled awake, I had a feeling my plan of having a productive Sunday afternoon in a quiet office was not going to go as I had anticipated. Honestly, I don’t know why it didn’t dawn on me earlier that bringing him was a bad idea.
Just a couple days earlier, I had made the decision to pick up my five-year-old son from school and keep him at work with me so he didn’t have to take the bus home. At one point, while I was trying to get through some last-minute interviews, I had to stop the phone conversation to tell Gavin to be quiet. After all, he had been quiet just a few minutes earlier when I wasn’t on the phone.
Working in chaos must be something I thrive on, because I seem to find myself in similar situations time after time. Although working in an office can be chaotic and busy in its own way, it doesn’t compare to working from home. As a part-time photographer with my own business, I often find myself surrounded by toys that Brodie has decided to haul out of his playroom while I’m trying to take pictures of someone else’s child. He also has quite the knack for running in front of the camera just when I’ve settled a baby or convinced someone else’s busy two-year-old to sit nicely on a chair.
Despite the chaos of working from home, it is comforting when a certain blond-haired blue-eyed boy comes and sits on the floor by my feet, as he tries to hide from daddy at bed time. I know I could probably be a lot more productive if there were fewer distractions, but at least work doesn’t feel like work when I can do it from home.
As for taking a child to the office on a Sunday afternoon, that probably wasn’t the best strategy. Hearing a little boy repeat the word “go-go-go” about 20 times, while tearing my calendar and emptying out the contents of my purse searching for a snack before he finally decided that highlighters could be used as markers, was a bit overwhelming.
In the end, I did get some work done. An hour in the office on a Sunday afternoon with a child probably only equals about 15 minutes of work on a Monday morning, but it was a step forward nonetheless.
