Ladies and Gentlemen, I survived my first day back in the office, and am officially a Working Mom. A Mother Who Works, if you will. A Bad Ass Mother Worker, even.
We've known one another for a while now (most of us, anyway- hi new readers!) so I feel I can Be Real With You, as I have so many times in the past, about how I'm feeling:
Pretty freaking magnificent.
I brought Neeps with me to the office, where he kept me company for a good 90 minutes before his Auntie D came to pick him up. And those 90 minutes were very important, because they showed me, without a shadow of a doubt, that I absolutely cannot do my job properly with him there.
Once he was gone I was able to really dig in- and it still took me until after 12:30 to get through all my emails. Which was perfect, actually, because it was about fifteen minutes later that Auntie D came back by with Neeps. I fed him, and then the three of us took a walk (in the suddenly pouring rain) to go get lunch. The whole time I just kept thinking how lucky I was, to have such a compassionate woman in my life, helping me ease into my role as a working mother. And she's not the only one: I have a whole flight of wonderful women who have come together to help me in these first weeks: with childcare, with emotional support, with whatever I need. Even my boss (aka The Captain) has done everything in his power to make this transition a smooth one. Lucky, lucky lady- that's me. I wish everyone could have such an amazing support system.
The rest of the day followed the same pattern as the first half (I'd forgotten how icky sitting all day is), leaving me mentally exhausted but really, truly satisfied. And in spite of my fears, I didn't actually cry*. Once Neeps was out of the office I seemed to automatically compartmentalize, completely separating my Work self from my Home self. And obviously I know it won't always go so smoothly, but I'm so glad to have rock solid evidence that I made the right decision about going back to work. This really is what's right for me, and for my family.
I'm excited to go back in tomorrow, and tackle what I couldn't get to today. And I might even go in for a few hours this weekend, to polish any stragglers off, and be truly prepared for my, "So You're Back at Work" meeting with The Captain on Monday. It's a great feeling to love your job- and it makes going home to giggle with my husband and son that much more precious.
*(Full disclosure; I did tear up during the lunch visit, as I stared into his eyes while Auntie D told me about his morning- but nothing made it past the eyelashes.)
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