I have only five days left in the office. Then, I’ll be going on a maternity leave. This leave will be the longest stretch of time in my life without working since I was 15 year old. Now before you say, “Oh, you’ll be working, alright,” yes, I know I will be working. I recognize that having two children isn’t sitting on the sofa all day eating bon bons. But what I mean to say is it will be the longest stretch I’ve ever gone as an adult without going to work on a weekly basis. I think the longest vacation I’ve had in the last 20+ years was 10 consecutive days and that was just last year. There was also a one month period when I was 24, during which I was searching for a real “adult job” between working in Toronto and working in Markham, but I was freelancing during that time on the side. It felt like “not working” because I spent most of my days lounging beside my parent’s swimming pool and eating sliced cucumbers but actually, I was still working in the evenings doing social media and brochures for a former employer. Yes, social media existed way back in in the early 2000's.
So of course, I’ve found myself a second project to take on while I’m away from the office. The project might take an hour or two of my time every two weeks, and I am assured that if I can’t obtain an hour or two to myself every two weeks that I will go crazy. So at least this way, I will be forcing myself to make that ‘me’ time on a consistent basis. The plan is to write a bi-weekly column about the experience of motherhood for my local paper, The Review. Not only will this be a good exercise in making time for me, but it also will keep me flexing my brain and stretching out my ability to write. Writing consistently is something I’ve put on a back burner for the past couple of years and I want to put it on a front burner again. Not only that, but I think it will be a nice record of motherhood to have 26-or-some-odd articles about being a mom to collect together at the end of the year.
One of the fears I have about doing this is a nagging voice in my own head that says I have nothing new to say about motherhood that has not already been said. This, of course, is completely possible. I haven’t read many “mom” blogs or “mom” authors, so perhaps every single thing I type will be a retread of some other mom’s deep thoughts. Alas, I’m going to shut that voice away in a Diaper Genie and just focus on my own impressions and thoughts about the entire experience. I figure at the very least, those of you on my social feeds will enjoy bits and pieces of voyeurism into my life. At medium, some of you will get some commiseration and a feeling of community from it. And at best there will be some deeply relatable shit in there that will make you feel not-so-alone in this world, some pithy humour you admire, or some observations that make you think, “yeah, girl, I hear ya.” Maybe you’ll share it with your friends or give it a "like".
My column, titled Twin Perks, will be published in upcoming issues of The Review - you can subscribe online for the full year for $21 and the paper will be emailed to you every week. I really enjoy our local paper for all of its charm and viewpoints on small town life. It is a bonus to support independently owned media - owned and operated by a woman no less - so you’ve got all of the political and social reasons to support this paper you’ll really need. It would mean a lot to me, if you like some of my writing, if you’d be willing to subscribe.
If you’re not a subscribing-to-a-paper kind of person, I believe there will be the option to read some of this writing online at a later date, so perhaps instead you’ll subscribe to my new blog/website enews and get updates. I’ll push content out to you by email and don’t worry, I won’t be hustling you to get 10% off things you don’t need. This is going to be a website home for my writing exercises, and links to published content, and if that interests you, and you’re kind of lazy like me and just prefer to get things delivered rather than remembering to check back, sign up for my enews so I can alert you of new happenings and postings. Thanks in advance for reading!
