Days Off and Off Days

Working 4 days a week rather than 5 is a huge, huge peace-of-mind-maker. Weekends go by quickly enough as it is, and weeks too slowly. I really don’t think I would feel I had enough (synonyms adequate, moderately acceptable, baseline) time with my daughter if we only had the two days at home each week. As it is we spend most of our time away from work/Nana in pretty close proximity. She needs lots of cuddling and I need it too.
Today wasn’t an exceptionally peaceful day. As I cast my mind back over the day my main thought is, thank God she’s finally asleep. Though when I objectively count how I spent time today, the highlights (cuddling and playing; an hour to myself to watch part of a movie and put away laundry; fruit/counters cleaned up and 2 types of jam made; yummy dinner with husband) outweigh the lowlights (opportunities for personal growth; whining, non-napping baby; too much time on my own). Is it an off day if that’s my final take-away? Or can I choose to reinterpret at the end of the day and focus on the peaceful?

Back to the mediation course I took in August: we learned about reframing positions into positive statements as a means of moving the resolution process forward. Though it might be intrusive if done to someone else, when applied to my personal life it is highly instructive. If I reframe today, my day off becomes “lots of time to bond with my baby; had time to myself to relax plus time to get done needed household chores.”

Sometimes it’s fun to focus on the negative. It can be satisfying to be right about how wrong things are. And talking about the bad day I’ve had is a sure way to get positive attention. The reality is that my day becomes, primarily, what I make it and what I say about it.

To conclude – my day off was full of time and slowness and productivity and relaxing and the chance to become a more patient parent.

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