It may seem that 24 hours are many and that they should be enough for everything, however, when you are a father, you live every day with a strange feeling that you have hours left to reach everything the way you would like to arrive.
There is a phrase that says that "the one who covers a lot, does not squeeze," which comes to say that when we want to do too many things, with the limit offered by the 24 hours a day has, we end up doing nothing the way we We would like or not get the same results as if we focused on doing less.
It is for this reason, because of the feeling of not being able to do everything, that it seems completely legal and logical to send to the “Ministry of Citizen Temporalization” (if it does not exist, to be invented) a request to be implemented on the 30 hour day.
Then I leave you with a copy of this request:
For the implementation of the 30-hour day
Dear Sir:
I am pleased to address you on behalf of all the fathers and mothers that we see how, day by day, time is on top of us without remedy, how we try to educate our children in the best way possible in the short time we agree with them, how we try to perform in our work despite starting our work days as tired as if we left them, how we observe that dark circles approach our lips, the melanin of our skin has long since disappeared and the shine of our hair It was in some comb or in our hands when washing it in any way, not to mention the hairstyle, outdated for a few years or our clothes, closer to what one would wear on a Sunday to be comfortable than what one would wear to be elegant
We also realize that we do not have too much time to clear our minds, because when at night we intend to sit and watch TV or read a book, we are so tired that we fall asleep after reading four lines or after seeing the four scenes that happen to the credits of presentation of a film.
For all this and many other things that I will comment below, we request an extension of the daily schedule, from the current 24 hours to a total sum of 30 hours with the following intention:
- Having time to dress and dress the children without the first hours of the day looking like an obstacle course in which you race against time, against the child who wakes you up later, the other who does not want to wear the red shirt , the first one who spills the milk, the girl who vomits when you are already at the door, the second one who disassembles the toilet paper roll while you dress the girl and the first one who has stayed on the landing watching the elevator go up and get off while the neighbors ask him “where are (the disastrous of) your parents”.
- Arrive at school without having to test the brakes and shock absorbers of the car at all times and avoid endangering pedestrians and other drivers.
- Prevent our children from hearing us scream in expletives to the girl in the backpack who crosses the crosswalk as if love for him prevented her from stopping on him in a short space of time.
- Avoid having to beg the concierge to open the door when he has just closed it and avoid having to sign the little leaf in which you see how many days you are late.
- Not having to run back to school to leave the backpack that the second one has left in the car.
- To be able to leave the children, in summary, with peace of mind, chat with someone you know about what happens at school, the weather or what happened in the Champions League the other day instead of shooting out towards the car in the direction of work, observing That, one more day, you're late.
- To propitiate that the moment of the meal can be a moment in which to share time and words with our children without having to continually press them to try to leave again towards the school with the minimally collected kitchen.
- Avoid that in any of the trips by car, including the departure from work, the scene is similar to the one experienced in the morning, testing the brakes and the shock absorbers of the car, releasing the girl from the backpack (or the one who thinks that the roundabout has only one lane) and parking the car in the place that most bothers the rest.
- To be able to take your children a snack as God commands (a snack and a small bottle of water) and not a damn juice full of sugar, four cookies with chocolate or an energy bar.
- To be able to go shopping when leaving school with the peace of mind that it will still be daytime when you get home and you will not have to run to bathe them, comb them, put on their pajamas and make them dinner.
- Having time to get home to be with them and with them, and thus be able to ignore the nonsense of expert theorists who say that we are calm, that the important thing is quality time and not the amount of time.
- Make our children feel that we love you, that we serve you, that are important to us and that we can leave what we are doing to pay attention to them (too many times we cannot attend them because we do not have the precise time and the duties, the baths, the pajamas and the dinners occupy the only time we had to share).
- Dinner all together sitting at the table, that great habit that few people maintain and that both helps to preserve the family unit and favors communication by turning off the TV, not because it is bad or worse, but to be able to explain how the day went.
- Lying the children after dinner and brushing their teeth, telling them a story, then another and then another if necessary, stroking their hair, accompanying them until Morpheus picks them up in their lap.
- Just pick up what is left, sit down dad and mom to watch a chapter of a series, a movie or read a few chapters of a book to end up happening all of it (if it is tertiary), and make love with the tranquility that you He knows that tomorrow you will not be too tired because you still have several hours to rest.
- Going to bed knowing that the night is long and that, if not, the blinds will still take time to rise. Being able to wake up as many times as our children require, without fear of seeing that the alarm clock is about to sound and you have only slept 3 hours.
- Waking up again in the morning, with the peace of mind you had the day before, knowing that there are still 30 hours left to work, to enjoy the children and, in short, To enjoy life, that must be what we came to the world for.
Very thankful.
Receive a warm greeting.
If someone answered:
Yes, I know you are thinking that it is impossible. 30 hours a day, there is no way to change it.
It is true, probably someone would answer that it is impossible, unfeasible, utopian and precious, although absurd at the same time.
They would probably even send me a couple of cards with the name of a couple of good psychiatrists who could treat me gladly.
Then I would break the response letter angrily and think out loud that “and the cards that get them where they fit!”, I would sit at my desk and start a new letter addressed to the “Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs” ( this one does exist), complaining about the system shit that we have mounted (sorry for the crap, I put the soap in my mouth myself), that the resources they offer us to raise our children go away from them when they are only 16 weeks old, offering daycare centers for the day , other services to leave them for one euro per hour (minuts menuts) at other times and ultimately demonstrating that work and family conciliation are three words that are composed of fourteen consonants and thirteen vowels, mixed together, that have no meaning because today, there is no one who can reconcile the raising of a child of months or a few years with a job, without losing social and / or economic status.
I would sign this new letter and I would attach a copy of the request to be implemented on the 30-hour day just in case because I, erre que erre, I still think it is a great idea (although to these I would add an annex to prevent them from taking advantage to increase the working day).
Photos | Flickr - Ingorrr, me and the sysop
In Babies and more | Suspension in family-work conciliation and its consequences, Unicef asks for greater family conciliation, quality time or quantity of time ?, About neomachismo and parenting with attachment
