On Sunday J-Mama and I made curtains for the living room. They are nothing complicated - four simple, tab-top panels. It took us about four and a half hours, and included a trip to the JoAnn Fabrics for more red thread and a relocation to J-Mama's house when we discovered that my sewing machine was not working properly.
I greatly appreciate that my mom gave up her Sunday afternoon to help me with this little project. I might could have done it on my own (but for the equipment failure) but I am not adverse to accepting more experienced help. For that reason, I was OK with it back at the holidays - yes, the CHRISTMAS holidays - when I decided that I wanted to get the windows covered after almost three years in our house, and Mr. J suggested that his mother should make our curtains. As I said at the time, I was pretty sure that I could handle the straight seams involved, but the woman is, in fact, a very talented seamstress, and I am sure that her work would be much better than mine. And, one might think, much quicker - since she has all that experience. AND NO FULL-TIME JOB. But oh, one would be wrong.
On Saturday, May 15, I reclaimed the fabric that had been sitting in Mr-Mama's sewing room since January 2 - uncut, unpinned, and certainly unsewed. Look, I know it was a favor, not a paying job. But I really don't think there is any excuse for that kind of delay. While she no doubt could have actually performed the task in less than 4.5 hours, Lord only knows when she would have gotten around to it.
The question I have is this: what does that woman DO all day? I can totally understand how busy a stay-at-home mom is, especially one whose children are not yet of school-going age. But when your two children are 27 and 29, what is filling your time? She doesn't clean her own house - she has not one but TWO weekly housekeepers. She doesn't garden - they have a landscaping company that cuts the grass and tends the shrubs. She cooks dinner most nights for herself and Mr-Papa, but you know, Mr. J and I manage to cook dinner most nights too. She runs Nanny around on errands, but there were several years when J-Mama was running J-Grandmama around and fitting it in to her 50-hour workweek, so it can't be that time-consuming.
So WHAT does she DO with herself all day? You might suspect that she is doing volunteer work, but if she is I have never heard one word to mention it. Playing golf and riding her horse are her only activities I know of besides making dinner and occasionally taking Nanny to the doctor or hairdresser. (And shopping. Lots of shopping. Shopping for tons of $h!t nobody needs or even wants.) And it isn't even like she is a dedicated golfer with a scratch handicap who is out every day. Nope, she just plays occasionally - I think she's in a league that plays 14 times a summer or something.
I asked Mr. J this question in the context of wondering when she might ever find time to make our curtains. He said that whenever he swings by there during the day, she's reading a trashy novel or watching TV or playing with the dog. That's about it. And I can only say that I think this a colossal waste of the talent and energy of a very bright woman. I love a trashy novel as much as the next girl, but I love it as a break from my intellectually challenging profession. (Much as this blog post is currently providing me with such a break.)
And for heaven's sake - if you don't want to interrupt your very busy schedule of doing nothing to exert yourself enough to make someone's curtains, DON'T OFFER. If she had said she didn't think she could get to it, Mr. J might have rolled his eyes but we would not have cared a bit. I really don't see the value in promising to do something you are not really interested in doing, but that is a whole other post.
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