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Family Datebook
As a stay-at-home
mom, I may not own a cell phone, a pager or a Beemer, but
do I have one thing that other "up and coming" business
types all carry everyday as religiously as a nun carries
her rosary: I own a datebook.
The typical mothers' datebook scheduling
session goes something like this:
MOTHER ONE: "Ashley can play with little
Lindsey on September second, from 3 to 4 PM. How does that
fit your schedule?"
MOTHER TWO: "Oh, dear. She has a piano
lesson then--unless she qualifies for the regional young
musicians competition and then we'll be in New York. How
about November 11th?"
MOTHER ONE: "Hmmm, that's a tight
squeeze for us. Ashley has an advanced jungle gym climbing
course until 3:30 on that day. How about December third?"
MOTHER TWO: "No, we'll be standing in
line to get "Nutcracker" tickets from the first through
the sixth. It only took to about the fourth last year to
get some decent seats up in the balcony..."
<continued below>
MOTHER ONE: "Lucky you! Well, the winter
is really booked up for us. We're planning on taking a
family class for snowboarding from January through
March... Is April open for you all?"
MOTHER TWO: "I think April is fairly
busy for us. We have the statewide Easter Egg Hunt to plan
and implement. June is looking good, though."
MOTHER ONE: "June it is, then. We'll see
you in June of 2012--unless it interferes with the girls'
high school graduation ceremonies..."
And so forth.
But these sorts of scheduling conflicts
can be minimized if Mom and Dad can train their offspring
to check the "family calendar" before making any
commitment to attend a concert, play over at a friend's or
get married to that funny kid your college-aged daughter
perpetually invites over for dinner. . .
A convenient place to house such a
calendar or datebook is by the phone that gets the most
use each day. In most homes that means the kitchen phone.
A corkboard tacked above the phone area with a large
square calendar and a pen or marker tied to it with a
string makes for an idiot-proof set up. Some families
even "color-code" their calendars with blue marker for
Johnny and pink for Suzy. Mom and Dad usually settle for
"green" which is what all these crazy activities are
costing them anyway.
Any date that is too important to miss--i.e.
the day you officially adopt that funny kid into the
family through matrimony--can be circled with a giant red
circle and a slash like you see on road signs. This means,
"You must yield to the authorities (Mom and Dad) before
you plan anything on this date." Be sure to use unwashable
markers or blood and not a cheap substitute like
college-aged daughter's riot red lipstick to mark
important days such as these. Never ever "pencil in" an
event unless you want to simply let it "disappear" in the
collective consciousness of your brood. Even an
eraser-less house such as ours somehow finds a way to blot
out this less than exciting activities that generally
parents schedule for "family togetherness".
And "family togetherness" is what a
datebook is all about. So get organized today, and be
sure you leave at least one day a week open you can share
together without a scheduling conflict. You may find out
you actually like that funny looking kid after all...

Cindy Appel is a freelance writer, weekly online
columnist, struggling novelist, and confused mother, wife
and woman (not necessarily in that order). Read her
column, "Every Day Is Mother's Day".
Visit her site. |