Sometimes It Sucks to be a Work From Home Mom

Don't get me wrong. I love the creative part. It makes me really happy to draw my little pictures of babies and toddlers. And if I stop and think about it, it's fabulous that there are people all over America (not A LOT of people, but they are spread out geographically) whose infants are wearing my designs.

But it's been ages since I've actually drawn a picture. I've been spending all my available "me time" on uploading the drawings, writing the descriptions for the store, and . . . as much free online advertising as I can bear.

Okay, I shouldn't just focus on the negative. The online advertising can be a lot of fun, too, or I just wouldn't be spending so much time on it. I do get a chance to be creative when I'm creating lenses on Squidoo: Little Characters Baby Clothes Lens or adding entries to my blogs: Obama Baby Clothes, Baby Nicknames Onesies, and Jewish Baby Clothes. But they do suck up a whole lot of time.

And then there was yesterday. My husband had helped me design flyers and I thought I would go to a few local grocery stores and post them. We went to the store closest to home and I bought my son a banana. Happy times.

We drove to the next one on my list - taking a slight detour to look for Starbucks (which we couldn't find!) - and arriving about 15 minutes later. My son is starting to get pretty tired of being taken in and out of moving things with seatbelts. Carts, cars . . . kinda all the same! But he goes along with me and I discover that this Giant doesn't have a community bulletin board. Aargh.

I try to salvage the whole mission by taking him to a funky coffeehouse nearby. This way, he can just sit with me a little while and have fun, right? Well, the only way an 18 month old can really do that is by being strapped into a highchair! More seatbelts - though this isn't a moving thing. Luckily, they have cookies. I'm not especially proud of this, but I let him eat a big chocolate chip cookie all by himself. (Well, he did share it with his Cookie Monster doll) We talk to Daddy on the cell phone, my little guy says "Wubba" (which is Sesame Street monster talk for "I love you"), and I plan to try just one more grocery store on the way home.

My son throws a fit when I try to get him back in the car. I guess that this is normal for his age, and I can certainly understand his frustration, but for a second or two I really didn't know how we were going to get home. He was bucking and it took everything I had to get him safely in that carseat in as gentle a manner as possible. I promised him we were going straight home. Enough is enough. He is normally so good in cars with all my mama errands, so I had clearly pushed the limit.

And after all this, I just wonder, what did I really accomplish? I caused my sweet-mannered little boy to have a tantrum and bribed him with a hugely sugary snack, and what do I have to show for it? Two flyers hanging on bulletin boards hidden by restrooms.

Okay, I'm going to draw now.