When Will My Life Begin (Again)

Moms of older kids, I could totally use some insight or encouragement. I love the movie Tangled, and I can totally relate to Rapunzel’s character when she sings “When Will My Life Begin.” I absolutely adore my daughter, who’s four and a half. Before I got pregnant I was aware that having a baby meant sacrifices, changes, and upheaval. I was prepared to give up sleeping in, time alone, and meals at nice restaurants. I embraced Elmo, the Alphabet Song, and diaper bags. but I have to admit, when I entered year four, I started to wonder, when I could resume some semblance of my previous life.

Now, to be fair, I do have an odd job. I don’t go to an office, and I’m my own boss, so I tend to work nights, weekends, and early mornings. I’ve also had a bit of momentum in my career of late, and I’ve had a lot of opportunities, which means more work. But with all the mom stuff and all the work stuff, I don’t have time for anything else. I’m an author, and I hardly have time to read. I have to read for research and also for work (books I’m judging in contests or I’ve been asked to read and blurb), but I rarely read anything for fun. I rarely read anything I pick out myself.

And TV? Forget it. I see all these tweets about shows called Revenge, Once Upon a Time, Game of Thrones, Call the Midwife, and The Voice. Never watched them. Not one of them, not even one episode. I have watched every Barbie movie ever made, but that’s not exactly something I’m excited about.

Let’s talk movies. My husband and I get to a movie maybe once a quarter, if that. On date nights, we could choose to go to movies more often, but then we give up rare opportunities to have conversations longer than 3 seconds. I haven’t seen any of the movies at the top of the box office charts right now. Wait. That’s not right. I saw Rio 2. I’ve seen every kid’s movie that came out in the last 12 months. Again, not an accomplishment I was going for, but you have to do something on cold or rainy days.

And let’s not even talk about the news. I have no idea what’s going on in the world. If there’s a shooting somewhere other than my backyard, I probably don’t know about it. A plane disappears? I think I heard something about that in passing. There’s a war in Russia? I don’t watch the news. I’m asleep when the nightly news is on and I can’t watch with my daughter because I don’t want to explain what a land mine is or have her up all night because she’s afraid a tornado might flatten our house. It’s not that I don’t care about the world. I do. I just can’t fit more than 5 minutes of NPR in between errands into my day.

So here’s my question, moms. When do I get to watch TV again? Not like hours of TV, but a few shows a week? When do I see movies again or catch up on world affairs? Do I have t wait until she’s 18 and moves out or is there an age where you get to have some of your old interests back?