Summer pests

So what part of "I'm in a meeting" doesn't make sense to my kids? I'm telling ya, working full time during the school year is easy peasy compared to working during the summer when my kids are home.

I think during the school year, as long as they are busy in their school day, they could really care less of where I am or what I'm doing, but in the summer, on the other hand, they want me at their beck and call. They must not realize that when I leave the house in the morning all dressed up, that I'm actually going to a "job" that entails working and some meetings and earning money for our family. Even if I tell them, now I have meetings today so you can't keep bugging me or I have to travel out of town today so you'll have to get ahold of your dad, they forget it by the time I leave the driveway because a half hour later, they're texting, "Can I make muffins? What about cake? Where's my pink shorts?"

It's not like they're long conversations but when I'm actually sitting in a meeting, one that I just told them at lunch that I'd be in, they'll call. My phone is vibrating on my chair while all the people in the meeting are looking at me, so I click it off and text them, "in mtg." To which they respond, "Oh, can I call u?" Hmm, I just told you all at lunch that I'd be in meetings so I'd be unavailable, then I just texted you that I'm in a meeting, yet you still ask if you can call me? So, I ask, just to make sure, "u ok?" They respond, "Ya. Can we make cookies?" Then it doesn't matter what answer I give them, yes or no, because either will lead to more texts and more times my dumb phone is buzzing during my work meeting. Now I'm fully aware that I can shut off my phone, but that mom part of me has to keep it on "just in case" of an emergency so I just keep apologizing to my coworkers.

Today I had an out of town lunch meeting. They texted me all the way there with random questions about holiday plans, how to wash the clothes and a pair of shoes they wanted, blah, blah, blah. When I got to the meeting, I called and reminded them that I would not be available unless of an emergency until the meeting was over. Sure enough, 20 minutes into my meeting, while I'm trying to facilitate and eat my lunch at the same time, my phone buzzes, "The toilet clogged. Where's the thingy to fix it?" Oh my gosh, I'm eating and talking work stuff, fixing a clogged toilet over the phone was not what I needed right then. "Leave it," is all I texted back. She continues to text, "so just push handle?" I decided to quit responding and carry on with my meeting. I probably should have excused myself to call home and walk them through how to fix it to avoid flooding my house, but instead I shut off my phone. I figured after a few more attempts of trying to reach me, they'd give up and call their dad so I wasn't too worried about it.

I'd like to trade spots with them sometime so they can see how they torture me. Ya know, keep texting them over and over about unimportant and arbitrary things while they're trying to accomplish a task that they're being paid for

. I'll text them about how late I slept in and send them pictures of my outfit choices. Then I'll ask them to help me solve my Wheel of Fortune puzzles on my iPad and then ask them if I can go with my friends to the pool and when they say no, I'll ask them a hundred times why not and send them sad faces while they're sitting in meetings. It'll be so fun!