Thursday, October 4, 2007

The Thursday Three

I've had one kid sent home from school sick and another walk in the door with a bloody nose today. The school messed up and called the Film Geek first, so he had to leave a meeting to pick up Gumby when I could very easily have done it myself. And I have no idea why Surfer Dude's nose sprang a leak. So, in light of that, the subject this week is


Things that stress you out



#1. Sick kids. Number one on the list in every possible sense of the word. You would think that I'd be pretty calm about it considering what I do for a living, but I swing the opposite, thanks. I have hypochondriac tendencies to start with. Throw a sick kid in the mix and I'm ready for Valium.


For all of us. But more for me.





#2. Lack of alone time. I become a raving biatch if I don't get enough time by myself. I can honestly say that I never get bored alone, but if I'm constantly surrounded by people I get quite short tempered and twitchy.

My family realizes that a happy mom is in their best interest and lets me have my space.

Sometimes.







#3. Schedule changes. I do not do well when something that has been planned out changes at the last minute. I like to think I'm flexible, but scheduling issues drive me nuts. This is particularly true when I arrange my work schedule around the FG's and then his schedule changes, usually with very little notice. Guess who almost always has to figure out how to make it work?

I usually manage it, but it makes me crazy in the process.




Sorry for the short post, but I'm off to snuggle up with sick and leaky kids and have a quiet night in front of the television. It's time to shift into mom gear. (Like I ever really shift out).

Now it's your turn to tell the world what stresses you out. We'll be watching Top Chef.

21 comments:

ped crossing said...

Ditto. Ditto. And ditto.

What makes sick kids worse? A sick mom dealing with sick kids. I hope you stay well!

la bellina mammina said...

I can empathise with you - but I stress more when the boys have a looooot of homework to be handed in the next day and on the day of homework, they have activities in school till late afternoon which gives them very little time to finish their homework!

Jo Beaufoix said...

Blimey RC, I'm with you on all 3.
I hate it when my kids are sick, but at least I'm at home. It was a nightmare when I was working as I worked in a school so couldn't just stick in a holiday.
Oooo Stress.

Hope the boys are well and less leaky soon. And I agree with ped crossing, hope you don't catch it.
Hug.

Anonymous said...

I can definitely relate to sick kids. I am so unsympathetic towards Amy when she's feeling poorly and am constantly telling her she's not that bad!

Being alone is also extremely important on my list. I could quite easily and very happily live alone. In another life of course!

Bad time keeping - people not turning up when they say they will. We had friends (who we haven't seen for months) who wouldn't think anything of turning up 1,2 sometimes more hours late. For example (here I go), Boxing Day. All arranged. Buffet ready. Games ready (I went out and bought Trivial Pursuit and Bullseye), Amy was really excited. Arranged for so-called friends to arrive at 3pm. They turned up at quarter to 7. I got the odd text message saying they would be late (as usual) but that was clearly taking the p**s. Our friendship seemed to take a downward spiral after that!

Crystal xx

Anonymous said...

Glad I found this blog. Things that stress me out. Hmmm...

1)Kids that tell me they have to be to school early. They always wait to tell me until 10 minutes before they are supposed to be there.

2)looking to see which physician is on call when one of my patients takes a turn - I swear it's a conspiracy. They all wait until Dr L, Dr K or Dr AJ is on call before they get sick.

3) Pay Day - trying to figure out which bills are going to be paid on time, and which ones are going to be late again

laurie said...

a) my job. i won't go into details; just believe me.

b) my family. i don't mean doug and the dogs; i mean my biological family. i won't go into details; just believe me.

c) too many social obligations. i spend the entire workweek in intense conversations/debates/arguments/meetings with a wide variety of people. in my time off, i mostly vant to be alone. while i enjoy get-togethers (such as the Peter Miller Retirement Party), i also get stressed when i look at the calendar and see a bunch of obligations.

Amy said...

1. Illness of any sort. I can't stand being around sick people, and having sick children about sends me into a breakdown. It's the same with my mom. I can't even sleep when I have to take care of her. If barf is involved, I need medication and a paper bag.

2. Out-of-town family get-togethers. I love my family. But psyching up to travel knowing I'll be stuck with them makes me hyper-crabby.

3. Having a messy house. Which is really pretty funny because it's always a sty. Always. Even when it's clean.

Kim said...

My biggest recent stressor: our lovely daughter driving. Enough said.

My own procrastination stresses me out. Isn't that pathetic? Especially since I'm in total control of it.

Noise. Too much noise, and I am crawling out of my own skin. Kid noise, pet noise, construction noise, it just doesn't matter. It's all bad.

CableGirl said...

Oh I hear you about the alone time. If I don't get some time to myself I get really freaky and unpleasant to be around. It makes me absolutely crazy. The schedule change thing also makes me a bit nuts, but then again, I'm probably borderline OCD, so what can you expect.

Luckily in our short 10 1/2 months my MJ hasn't really gotten sick yet so I have no opinion on the first one, but I bet when it does happen I'll be right there with you.

The other one ot make my top 10 list of things that stress me out is any big event that would require more than one of my parental units to be present at once, for example MJ's first birthday party. ugh.

Diana said...

Your 3 are my top 3. Scary.

3 more would be:

- Clutter

- Being late

- Public speaking

Jen said...

I especially agree with time alone. Which is something that, lately, I've been doing better with. I don't do well in crowds either.

Consistently negative people stress me out as well. Now, I'm not an optimist, per se, but there is a guy I work with that could fall into a vat of gold and complain that he stubbed his toe while doing it. Drives. Me. Nuts.

Poor sick and leaky kids. Hope they get to feeling better soon, and that you don't catch it. And I've started on your scarf!

Susan said...

Oh my gosh, where do I begin, and what can I really say since my family reads this...So many have been hit on already, but here goes:

1. HOMEWORK, and PARTICULARLY HOMEWORK OVER VACATIONS!!! When will the schools figure out that it ISN'T a vacation if there is a ton of homework? Oh, I already feel my blood pressure rising on this one, so I won't say anymore...

2. Insomnia - waking up and not being able to fall back to sleep is very stressful.

3. The freeways. Most people would probably tell you that traffic on the freeways is stressful, I would say the opposite, especially at night. I hate having to drive crazy fast, I hate driving in the dark. To me, it is just one terrible accident waiting to happen, and my teenagers will be driving soon; it is just so scary to me. I actually prefer to be creeping along, especially stretches that are unfamiliar to me. Of course, if I am on my way to work, or something that is time sensitive, the traffic stresses me out...

I could go on, but I am sure you've heard enough!

By the way, what happened to the code words?

Pam said...

wow, this looks a lot like my top 3..but then again, i'm stressed out on a daily basis w the whole 'blended' family thing. not only am i a biatch, but a raving one at that if someone work my nerves or stress me lol

Dumdad said...

Diana's nailed my top six stresses.

Altaglow said...

Driving on the freeway grabbed my attention as a stress inducer. Also, as I get older insomnia presents problems that tend to grow for days on end. but, that said, there's really nothing as bad as illness in a family to cause real STRESS.

Akelamalu said...

Getting the call from school to say your child is sick has to be the worst! However, now my kids are grown with kids of their own the call from the hospital to say Dad has been taken in 'again' has taken over top spot!

Iota said...

When you forget to take a kleenex out of the pocket of a pair of pants before you put them in the washing machine, and the whole load of laundry is covered in little white clingy specks.

Plus the 3 you mention. Plus lack of sleep in any shape or form.

Beth said...

1.Crowds. This means any space smaller than an olympic-sized pool containing more than 10 people. Don't even talk to me about the mall on the day after Thanksgiving without giving me lots of Xanax first. Please. And don't take me there without 4-point restraints.

2. Loud noises. Particularly people-made noises like leafblowers, sirens, fireworks, angry voices, gunfire, and loud mufflers on motorcycles. Most of my day is spent in silence. It's nice.

3. Work pressure and deadlines. No elaboration needed here, since I think just about everybody put this down.

wakeupandsmellthecoffee said...

1. Sick elderly parents. They're worse than kids.

2. Traffic. I hate other drivers. And no one, but no one, is a better driver than me. You heard it here first.

3. Lines. A bit like traffic, I suppose. I'm a very impatient person. Ask my kids.

Swearing Mother said...

1. Anything whatsoever being wrong with my family,physically, mentally, any way.

2. Going on holiday, dinner parties, momentous occasions. Anything when I'm not ready yet.

3. Having too much to do and no tme to do anything I want to.

Keep on taking the tablets!

Pam said...

hmmm pixel's top 2 looks like it could be a contender on my list. those things really bother me lol