I know we’re not supposed to admit it, but stay-at-home moms of school-aged children do have a favorite day of the week, and it’s probably not what you think it is.
Like all mothers, I love weekends, the time when the family is together, when my husband is home from work, when we catch up on projects, catch a movie, go out to dinner, and get to spend a little more time together as a family.
But what I really like are Mondays. Yes, Mondays.
On Sunday afternoons, when my husband heads upstairs to watch whatever seasonal sport is on as he irons his clothes for the week, and my daughter does some grousing while she gets her homework done, and the late news comes on and the newscasters provide the weather forecast for the week ahead, I’m almost… smiling. Because Monday is coming.
By Monday morning at 7:00 a.m., everyone in my household is somewhere else, except for me. My husband has left for work, one daughter is either at college or work, and the other is on the bus on the way to high school. I turn on either “Good Morning America” or the “Today Show”–depending on who has better guests and stories that day–eat a bowl of cereal, and sip my hot chocolate. Ah, it’s peaceful. I can hear myself think. No one is asking me for anything, or telling me anything, or questioning anything. No one is asking if I’ve done the laundry or if we have any more orange juice (before he or she actually looks to see if we do). No one is asking for a ride anywhere or an errand run. Dinner is defrosting on the stove and I’m looking over my to-do list for the week ahead. It will be busy, I think, as I check my daughter’s harrowing after-school schedule which requires me to drive on and off for hours, my volunteer activities, and my writing schedule.
Monday is generally my busiest day of the week. Ahead of me are all of the phone calls that I didn’t finish on Friday, the errands generated by a weekend of discussions, new plans made and new activities started, but I look at this with pleasure. Monday is always a guaranteed busy day, but it will be–have I mentioned?–quiet.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday. In fact, by Thursday, I am eagerly anticipating whatever we have planned for the weekend, if just to get a break from the routine of the week, the sound of the shower running at 6:00 a.m., the hurried dinners squeezed in between things. But something about Monday is so… delicious. It’s as if the slate is wiped clean, and anything is possible.
I love my Monday routine. I’m in such a good mood on Mondays that my dinner will contain a protein, a starch, AND a vegetable. My family might get some homemade bread or cookies. The house will get a decent cleaning. On Mondays, I even want to clean–after a weekend of everyone leaving their stuff around and dirt tracked in from outside.
It’s Monday. It’s quiet. Routine is back in place.
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