Julep: a study in contrasts

I am mighty tired this morning, but I'm hanging in there. Mr. J went sailing on the big water again this weekend, leaving me and Babycakes home alone. After the last sailing trip, I expressed to Mr. J that I was pretty darn exhausted after working all week and then spending the weekend on full-time baby duty (not to mention the dogs). He suggested that the appropriate solution was that he could line up a couple of hours for child care the next time he left town, so I could have a little break. I felt that this failed to fully encompass the problem, but you know, I'll take what I can get.

So on Thursday night I asked Mr. J about that child care situation. He said, "I talked to Mom and she's around all weekend, you just need to call her when you want help." OK, that isn't exactly what I had in mind either. I was hoping to have a couple of hours blocked off in advance that I could use to (a) take a bike ride, (b) get a pedicure for the first time in two months, (c) run a couple of errands, or (d) all of the above. But I figured I could call Mr-Mama on Saturday morning and try to set something up. Guess who never called me back.

My OWN mama came over on Sunday afternoon so I could take a little less than 2 hours to accomplish (b) and (c). She also spent Saturday morning at my sister's house playing with my nephews while Sis ran some errands - and Babycakes and I went over to visit. How is it that J-Mama, who has a full-time job, manages to babysit for both her daughters on the weekend, while Mr-Mama who does nothing all week can't squeeze it in?

And while we are on the subject - I reminded Mr. J last night that our friend has rescheduled her psychic party for Tuesday, Tuesday being Mr-Mama's designated Babycakes Day. Knowing that Mr. J has a lesson scheduled at 5:30, I said, "can you please make sure that Mr Mama is OK to keep him into the evening hours?" He actually huffed at me and said, "That means I won't get any work done on Tuesday, because she won't let me bring him over before 5 if I want her to keep him through the evening." Well, excuse me. I thought I might be entitled to a couple of hours of free time this fortnight.

If his mother sucks as a babysitter, why is it my problem? I would be all in favor of cutting her out entirely. Mr-Mama was the one who wanted to have "her own day" scheduled with Babycakes because she was jealous that J-Mama would see him every Wednesday. But let me point out that MY mother manages to watch the baby every single Wednesday at 4 pm after she's been up since 4 am and has worked 10 or 12 hours, while Mr-Mama schedules her non-emergent doctor appointments for 3:30 pm on Tuesday afternoons.

Mr-Mama is just lazy as sin. She doesn't like having to manage her schedule around anyone else and she doesn't like being responsible. Frankly, the less time she has to influence my kid, the better.