single parent gig

walking up to parents group yesterday with sarah we were discussing what it must be like to be a single parent. absolute hell with no respite was an apt description we decided. i just cannot image what single parents do to get from day to day. imagine having no-one to yell down the stairs to "on your way up bring me the blah, blah, blah...", or "here, hold this!", or "can you dress her please?", or "i just need ten minutes to do...." or "quick, grab the ..." or "you cook, i'll clean", or "you answer the phone, pick up the mail and the drycleaning, get dinner cooking, iron these shirts, water the pot plants, take the dog for a walk, vaccuum, empty the dishwasher, change the sheets, pay the bills, pack the toys away, put another load of nappies on to wash... while i play in the bath with the bub; and yes i want all that done in the ten minutes it takes to bathe a baby"

anyways... i suppose with grandparents or siblings or paid carers to help out it might be manageable. those without access to other walking chore doers must be insane. or very, very organised!
it was just percy and i last nite and today. i think for once my anal-ity (word?) about putting things away, having things within hands reach, having things sorted to be able to be done one-handed and generally having things organised (with spares!) is the only way you could do it. for instance this morning getting both percy and i out the door took 1 1/2 hours! this involved breakfast for both of us, booby feed for percy, shower for me, dressing both of us, two nappy changes for percy due to enormous, dark brown, highly noxious poo, collecting her gear for day care (most of which i done the nite before), locking up the house and feeding the cats. i didn't bother with make-up. how can that take 1 1/2 hours? well, it did. and it could have been a lot worse.

also for me this isn't likely to be an ongoing thing. i expect paul back today or tomorrow. the grinding repeativity of looking after baby and house by yourself must be utterly numbing.

i take my hat off to single parents.