7:30am - 10:30am: work, "nanny duties", i.e. feeding, cleaning, entertaining a 7-month-old baby. If she's feeling accomadating and can entertain herself for awhile, then I can also do some household chores, most also involving cleaning up after her.
10:30am - 12:30pm: she naps, I have time to work on other things. This is my chance to shower usually, and to take the dogs out back to exercise. Sometimes chores, sometimes writing, sometimes animal rescue business (making phone calls, updating website/facebook, networking, doing follow up, etc etc). If I'm being good about time management then I'll remember to eat my own lunch before she wakes up.
12:30pm - 3:00pm: work, more "nanny duties"
3:00pm - 4:00pm: she naps, I do other work. Sometimes I nap!
4:00pm - 6:00pm: work, nanny duties until Tom gets home.
6:00pm - 7:30pm: 1/2 nanny duties, 1/2 other stuff. Tom and I switch baby duty back and forth depending on who's making dinner (usually him)
7:30pm - 10:00pm: relax, have some TV time, though usually I also get phone calls about animal rescue stuff during this time.
By my calculations, if you don't count naps*, it's a 38 hours of work in a 5 day week, plus weekends, which in an ideal situation (where Tom cares for her exactly half the time), would add another 7-8 hours. So, I work a minimum of a 45 hour work week, before even counting whatever I do as director of a non-profit.
If you were a nanny or child care provider, you would count naps as work time, in which case I'd say I have like a 70 hour workweek.
I guess this is why I feel busy. And yet relatives and friends (even those who should know better) still ask what I do with my time, now that I "stay home all day".
I don't want to sound like I'm complaining. I'm happy; life is busy, full, and rewarding. But damn. This is why nannys are so expensive. It's a career.
*my child is a better-than-average napper, too.
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