More Hard Work

So, I got some wonderful responses to this post. It's nice to know I'm not alone, and that even I am loved.

I've done some more thinking about this issue--it IS homework after all.

The problem is that it feels like I've signed a social contract that no one else in the world has--that you only ask when you are truly desperate. Thus, it's not okay to ask unless the situation is extreme, PLUS when someone else asks you to do something, you are required to move heaven and earth to accommodate them, because it's an emergency--because they asked.

Which leaves me in a pissed off place when I find out that the request wasn't important. And whose fault is that?

I don't want to pass this on to the kidlets, but I don't have very good models to behave otherwise. Although I have this one friend who is very good at saying "I'm sorry. That doesn't work for me." And then she just shuts up--she doesn't apologize, or try to make something happen, or negotiate, or anything. Just "That doesn't work for me."

It's my new catchphrase.