Skip to main content

On becoming anti-social

I am a pretty social person (at least I think so), I tend to make friends easily and keep them (mostly), but sometimes I wonder if being at home alone with the baby makes me want to be home alone even more. My neighbor keeps asking me about coming to the playgroups and the monthly meetings of the Mom's club that we both belong to, and my standard answer is "I'm not sure..I'll have to see". This, even though I know full well that I'm probably not going to go.

Having worked for so long, always having to be aware of the time and my numerous appointments, I guess being at home with no set schedule is absolutely divine! There is something about waking up in the morning without having anything I have to do (except get Lucas off to school on time or close to it). I am very reluctant to commit to appointments..and I can avoid them, so I do. Now how many people can say that about their lives?

A long time ago, I was telling a friend that I was stressed. He looked at me as if I had said something particularly stupid and said "Well, eliminate the source of stress in your life". Yes folks, simple yet profound. But what if people are causing me stress? Well, if there are people causing you stress, and you can't do anything about it then have them in your life less. Ahhhh. Not that I am avoiding people, but more stressful situations. So, the thought of packing up 2 kids, with snacks and watching what they're doing and eating for a 1/2 hour monthly meeting adds up to stress in my mind...so I avoid it. Avoiding stress is another reason I am a stay-at-home mom, but perhaps that is in the category of "stress-exchange" rather than straight "stress-reduction". No matter, it is working for me at this point, largely because of the points above.

But all is not lost, I am finding that I can be very social with limited stress in very small groups (and preferably without the children in tow). There may come a time yet when I actually make it to one of the monthly meetings.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Fitness Photo Shoot

Fitness after stage III breast cancer Plank on ball in silhouette Why a fitness shoot? I am not a fitness model, nor am I ripped like one, but I wanted to do a fitness shoot for a few different reasons: 1. As a reminder of how far I have come At the 5-year anniversary of my diagnosis of stage III breast cancer, it seemed a good time to remind myself how far I have come since I went through the trauma of diagnosis and treatment. That no matter how low I felt at the time, I came through it. Not all my sisters made it and many are still struggling today (shout out to my IV-leagers - those living with stage IV,  EVERY DAY). 2. As a reminder of how much the body can do It is a moment for me to acknowledge that while there are things I still cannot do, there are things I could not do when I first started lifting weights, that I can do now and THAT is amazing to me. When I first started weight lifting maybe I could do shoulder presses with 7.5 lbs, now I can do more t...

What is your 'bread & butter' conversation?

I am anxious to get back to the playgroups with my Moms group, and talk with some of the other moms because I want to know what they talk to their husbands about at the end of the day. If I were to truly tell my husband what goes on with my day? Well, the conversation would be inane and irrelevant. Gunnar: "How was your day honey?" Big smile. Me: "You know the usual. Lucas got up late this morning and was crabby because he didn't have enough time to play before breakfast and Liam pulled off my tiny earring, you know, the one I was so excited about getting because I thought he wouldn't notice it, and I could wear earrings again? Anyways, he pulled it off, and I grabbed it from him and set it down so I could deal with him appropriately, and I forgot about it, but when I went back to look for it I couldn't find it. It might have gotten wiped off the table when I was cleaning, so I spent part of the day sifting through the garbage looking for it, then I looked ...

Week 2 - Part 1

So when last I posted, it was the weekend we told my dad about my diagnosis. Good grief, that was just last Saturday! Sunday 12th June : Told my brother and his wife the news.  We also planned to go out for brunch since my dad was in town, so we did that, after we all went for hair cuts (mine shocked the kids a bit).  They are not sure they like it.  That evening, a friend of ours was celebrating a milestone birthday, so we did go out and tried to forget about the week ahead, and enjoy some time with friends. Monday 13th June : No food - surgery Monday morning to insert a port-a-cath. This is new technology where they setup a catheter directly to the large vein under your collarbone to allow for easy access to do the chemo infusions (since it is very hard to do an IV each time). It remains under the skin so the nurses can access it each time.  As soon as I was sufficiently recovered, we headed off to do an Echo cardiogram (since the chemo drugs could affect the h...