When I was in college, I worked one summer as a custodian. For part of the summer, this entailed spending 20 to 40 hours a week tending a residence hall—vacuuming, dusting, mopping, sweeping, cleaning, etc.
One day I was cleaning the windows on the top floor when I noticed there was something on the balcony, something that I wouldn’t be sweeping off—a dead bird.
“Oh man,” I thought. “Somebody’s gonna have to take care of that. Who do I call?”
It took me about three seconds to realize—crap. I was the one they were supposed to call.
I feel this way a lot of the time as a mother. “Dang, this is the fourth time a child has cried between the hours of 2 and 3 AM. Somebody had better—oh yeah.”
When you’re the mom, the buck stops here—you have the ultimate responsibility in the households. Now, the exact division of labor varies, but a lot of the time, this means that if the baby is crying, the dinner is waiting or the cat is puking, somebody is calling “MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!” because it’s your job to fix it. (I totally pass the buck on the cat vomit though.)
And a lot of the time, all I want to do is call “MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!” because I don’t want to do any of those things! (I guess my mom probably doesn’t either, LOL.)
But the buck stops here. I’m the one they call; I’m the one who takes care of the tears, the food, the cleaning and the dead bird. (Garbage bag turned inside out and gloves, in case you’re wondering.)
What chores or crises would you pass the buck on, if you could?