The past couple weeks have been an exercise in rolling with it that is beginning to wear rather thin. The Not Sleepy family (from which I hail) are planners. In fact, I'd go so far as to say we plan rather much more than is necessary - our gatherings tend to have a schedule of sorts, more often written down than not. But since we all like it this way, it's good.
The greater Sleepy family defines the concept of "loosey goosey" if, in fact, such a concept would allow itself to be defined. There is the concept of "Sleepy Time" and I have learned that on larger event days (Thanksgiving, etc.) I need to tell the Sleepys to arrive 30 to 45 minutes ahead of when I actually need them to be there. That way we're not all sitting around waiting for them while the turkey gets cold.
For the 4th of July, the Not Sleepys and the Sleepys all celebrated together. Including one of the Sleepy uncles and his family who were up this way visiting. And Sleepy time was in full force. But it worked out - and apparently I appeared so relaxed about the whole fiasco that my ever-tactful father-in-law remarked to me that "having a child has mellowed you". I wouldn't go that far - I just am getting better at gritting my teeth and smiling. Still, it was fun, people seemed to enjoy themselves, and when it was over I heaved a great sigh of relief.
Well, this weekend, the Sleepy grandparents are coming up to visit. They're going to arrive "sometime after 2" tomorrow and will leave "on Sunday." They would like to "see Tim's parents" and "have dinner". I've been trying to nail down schedules and seriously, I should probably just make something up so that I feel better - though if I do that, I'll need to remember to then throw it out a window because any schedule I manage is going to be laughed at by Sleepy time.
When this weekend is over, I see myself dissolving into a nice, tidy few days of rigourously scheduled activities just to remind myself that some people actually do plan. In the mean time, I'm trying to roll with it.
21 hours ago
You are not alone!
ReplyDeleteThe week that Beau's Mom was here was kind of stressful because there were loose plans to visit Beau's Sis, et al. But no set times were ever mentioned and I couldn't pin anyone down on how that day was going to look so that I could plan for Molly Ann.
Turns out I stayed home since I was sick anyway and it all worked out just fine. We pulled reserved milk from the freezer and I pumped while they were away to replace.
I can relate to that. I'm a planner too!!! My friends however and my family to a certain extent are not (depends on the situation for the later). It can be pretty vexing, yes!
ReplyDeleteAs a non-planner, I can tell you that I appreciate a good planner! And while nothing has the power to disrupt plans as well as a baby, I'm finding that I really need a routine now more than ever, to maintain my sanity.
ReplyDeleteOh man, this burned me up when we went on vacation recently! I'm a very early riser at home anyway and on Pacific (2 hours earlier) you can only imagine how I was up & ready to rock well before the crack o' dawn.
ReplyDeleteNo problem, I'd get up, throw on some clothes and go for a sunrise walk along the seawall and zone out to my tunes. But then I'd get back to the hotel room an hour or two later, grab a shower, start making some breakfast, and MLW & her BFF are still snoring. Fine, I'd make some coffee, start getting our toddler up & fed and surely this will motivate the Slepys to get up. Nope.
Each day, we'd piffle away literally half or more of the morning in the hotel room! Meanwhile Liam & I are both getting antsy from being cooped up all morning and he's getting cranky since there's really not much for him to do in a small hotel room.
My philosophy is: we can lay around and piffle away our days in our jammies at home nearly anytime we'd like. We didn't spend mucho bucks on plane tickets, rental car, & hotel room to do that on vacation. Arrrgh!!
As a result, we (read: me) didn't get around to half of the stuff that had been carefully planned pre-departure. It was still a nice trip, but also a daily exercise in frustration and disappointment.