Snow Days are Hard

Until this school year, snow days were all fun and games for the girls and me.  It meant Daddy was home from school, somewhat unexpectedly, and we got to hang out as a family of four on a random weekday.  If there was enough snow, we’d play…but at the very least we had a fun time inside (and Mommy got a break from standard SAHM duties…I may have even gotten a nap!).

We’ve had quite a few snow days over the past three weeks, and things are different these days with the girls in school themselves and Mommy working.  In total, counting today, the girls have missed 7 days of school.  I’ve worked from home for three of those days, and then managed to make it into the office the balance.  That’s the tough part…the not-just-fun-and-games part…and I don’t love the way it makes me feel.

We’ve had plenty of notice for both recent snow storms, and I was able to pack files home to work on.  Snow days are “vacation days” for Daddy and the girls, but for me, they’re work days.  Granted, I get to conduct that work in my pajamas, but I still have work to do.

The excruciating part is that I feel like I spend so little time at home with the girls, and I miss our unstructured time so, so much.  When I am home on the weekends, I try to make that time just about what we want to do.  That’s not always easy, or possible…there are groceries to buy and laundry to do and meals to cook…but I try to harken back, as much as we can, to the 5 ½ years we spent hanging out, doing our own thing.

On snow days, how I would love to be hanging out in my pajamas all day with the girls…doing crafts, reading books, playing games, setting up some crazy pretend scenario.  Instead, though, for a large part of the day, anyway, I am holed up in my office, trying to respect the privilege of working from home.  The girls are respectful, for the most part, but they keep asking, “When are you going to be done?”  “Mommy, can you please come play with us?”  “I thought you said we could play XYZ???”

Yesterday I got up early to get some work stuff done before the day started.  I worked until lunch, and then I worked during “quiet time”.  I did call it for the day (at least until after bedtime) around 2:30.  At that point, our *FUN* started for the snow day.

Baby A's static-crazy hair as she crawled out from the "tent" she made during quiet time.

And we did manage to have quite a bit of fun…the four of us had a fantastic time sledding and throwing snowballs!!!  The snow had a little more moisture to it, instead of the total powder we had two weeks ago, so it was great fun.  And after we were totally exhausted from playing outside, I made homemade hot chocolate when we came in.  And then the girls got a bubble bath.  They watched a little bit of TV with Daddy (while Mommy might have rested her eyes for a few minutes), and then it was time for supper and bed.

The tracks we made in the snow, taken at sunset (through the window).

Certainly the day was not a bust.  We had some great fun together, and I got most of my work done, too.  It’s just hard when I am trying so hard to separate Work Time from Family Time, 99% of the time, to have to combine the two on what feels like it should be a pure day of Family Fun Time.

I’m hoping my girls remember snow days as fun…and not as days they were begging Mommy to pay attention to them.