Pause

Way back when, before PVRs (or TiVo as my American friends call it), I couldn't pause live TV. If I needed to pee, if the phone rang, if I wanted to make a snack, then I either had to wait for the commercial break and then rush rush rush or I had to miss a bit of my favourite show to take care of whatever I needed to take care of.  Now I can pause.....ahh.....pause.

I love my family and don't want to miss a minute of what is going on in their lives. It already pains me that I spend so much time at work and have to miss out on so much. So I'm not really wishing for more time away from them, because that would mean missing out on precious moments that can never be reclaimed, missing out on relationship building opportunities with them. I won't give that up for the world.

So I don't want to choose other things over my family. But I do wish that there was a pause button. Sometimes I'd like to be able to push pause for a minute (to pee by myself), for an hour (to have a nap), for a day (to get a bunch of things off of my plate), or a week (to go on vacation).

What would I do if I could push pause?

• Clean out my closet, get rid of clothes that I don't wear or that don't fit, and put away the ones that do fit nicely and neatly so that I can find them when I want to wear them


• Make nice meals to freeze so that dinner doesn't have to be such a rush all the time


• Catch up on scrapbooking to capture key moments in my kids lives for them to cherish


• Do my Christmas shopping in peace instead of trying to rush to a few stores in between other appointments and not really finding what I want


• Go to restaurants that I haven't been to since my kids were born and have long lingering meals


• Catch up with friends that I don't get to see very often (if they're not on facebook or twitter, I probably don't know what is going on in their lives)


• Spend a weekend hiking with my husband and enjoying each other's company without constantly being interrupted


• Get my finances in order so that I actually know where we stand financially instead of just rushing to pay all the bills at the last minute


• Sleep


• Read the dozen or so books that I started and never finished or ordered and never read (thank goodness for the index in books that I can use to look up info just in time)


• Get around to selling or donating books that I don't need anymore (Understanding the Euro anyone? How about Governing Canada? Or the Dinkum Dictionary?)


• And much much much more...

Sometimes it seems the only things I can get done are the things that can be done between 10:00pm and midnight, possibly with a sleeping baby on my lap if she needs Mommy to sleep. That's why I'm good at blogging, twittering, and posting to discussion forums, but not much else.

For everything else, I need the pause button. If you have one, can I borrow it when you're done?

Image credit: nickHiebert on flickr

Comments

[bessie.viola]

This is an awesome post. I don't dare make my "pause" list... I fear it would make me weep!!

Love the one about making dinners to freeze... now that's an effective use of the "pause" button!

Have you ever seen Click with Adam Sandler? Explores this concept a bit... great movie.

[phdinparenting]

I did see Click! I wouldn't want that to happen.....I remember him missing out on lots of stuff and things being crazier afterwards than they were before. No fast forwarding for me. Just a little break every once in a while....

[Elizabeth]

I was just thinking of scrapbooking, and now that I have 3 kids, I've completely let go of my guilt over not having any scrapbooks for any of them. I'm just too busy *living* with them to document much of it, you know? We take a lot of pictures, but I just don't have the time to organize anything beyond chronological folders on the computer. Maybe if I weren't a working mom it wouldn't be so hard to take the time away from them....?

[imaginationinparenting]

I often wish I had a pause button. And an undo button -- at times that would come in handy. I've even wished for a mute button!

I should make a list too!

[Julie Roads]

I love this Post...very smart. I'm making my list immediately...could be used as a vision board!

[phdinparenting]

@imaginationinparenting - Yes - an undo button would be great!!

[east end jenn]

I can really relate to this feeling! In the absence of a pause button, I often find myself dizzy with the decision of what to do with the tiny pockets of time I do have available. There are so many things I want to get to, and it's hard to let go of any of them. Then I get to kick myself for spending so long trying to make up my mind that I don't get as much done as I could have!

[Feminist Mothering (a book!) &]

[...] please add this to my Christmas list. I promise, I’ve been really nice! Oh, and maybe a Pause button too so that I have time to read it (right now I’m reading a book on another topic that is [...]

[Rosemary]

I just want a volume button - both for when they're happy but it's hurting my ears, or for when they're trying to tell me something important while we're driving and I hear them. I do find myself reaching for the volume knob on the car stereo sometimes trying to get them to sound louder!

[Brenna]

Lol. I don't have my Tivo anymore, but especially when I did I found myself (just for a tiny fraction of a second) trying to pause, rewind, fast forward, etc. all kinds of things that weren't possible including my kids.

I really wish I could pause my life so that I could take care of myself enough to be able to do the things I want and need to do for my family and community. That would be fantastic.

[Nati]

Nice article! I feel like I spend my life on the coach reading blogs while my baby is asleep on my chest :-)

[Toddlers: The Hours Are Long,]

[...] that toddler for a bit, and relax and watch. Or watch a bit at a time between toddler demands (the PAUSE button doesn’t work on the toddlers, but it does work on the [...]