Life as a 'Single Parent'

It's been one week since Hubby is off to Johor for work. I survived the first one week...yeay!
But it's not as smooth sailing, which is what I expected. It is a tough life..

Basically, this is my daily weekdays schedule as a single weekday parent:-

• Wake up at about 5.30-6.00 am., prepare breakfast for Aliff. Just a simple breakfast - nugget or sausage or sandwich..depends on what he wants and usually he tells me one day before.
• Subuh prayer. Gosok tudung (I prefer to do this myself instead of asking the maid to do it).
  
• Prepare Aliff's school bag (if it was not done during the night) and Aliff's uniform + underwear + socks on the bed.
  
• Ensure that the maid woke up Aliff at 6.30 to prepare him for school. Ok, this is the most tedious task in the morning. Crying, wailing, nak-tidur-lagi and tak-nak-sekolah from Aliff.
• Make Aliff eat his breakfast and drink his milk.
  
• 6.50 am - woke Ashraff up, ensure that he brushes his teeth and make up his bed (lipat selimut, susun bantal, tegangkan cadar). Ashraff is a morning person so he has no problem in that area, alhamdulillah.
• 7.00 am - angkat Aqieff from his bed and leave the house for Mak's. Mak shall send Aliff to school as it is a bit too early for me to send him directly.
  
• Park our Innova at Mak's house..and borrow Mak's Honda to work. Sorry, I'm still not confident to drive an MPV to work. 7.10 am - leave for work. I have to leave early to ensure that I have the perfect parking spot. You see, I don't have a dedicated parking space at my office as I never drive to work before.
  
• 8.00 am - reached office.
  
• 9.00 am to 6.00 pm - work, work and work.
• 6.30 pm - reached Mak's house. Sometimes I'll fetch Aliff at school but most of the times, Mak did it for me.
• 6.30 - 7.00 pm - take a lil bit of rest. Lie down, put my feet on pillow.
• 7.00 pm - Ashraff is back from school. Ensure that he takes a bath, while I have my Maghrib prayer. Ensure that Ashraff performs his Maghrib prayer. For the time being, I'll monitor and guide him.
• 8.00 pm - we had our dinner - me, Mak and the boys.
• 8.30 - 9.00 pm - reached our home.
• 9.00 pm - ensure that Ashraff does his homework and do a little bit of revision. Aliff usually will join his brother - either learning to read, writing or drawing...or join Aqieff to watch TV. I'll ask the maid to look after Aqieff while I change to my nightwear and perform Isya' prayer.
• Ashraff will pack his own bag based on his daily timetable. And I'll check to make sure his homework is done and the bag are packed accordingly. At times I just trust him as by then Aqieff is crying for me to put him to sleep. But Ashraff insists on Isya' prayer before he goes to sleep. So I'll carry and try to soothe Aqieff, while guiding Ashraff with his prayer.
  
• 10.00 pm - the boys are ready for bed. Kiss them goodnight...and put Aqieff to bed. ZZzzz...

Well, now that I put it in writing, it doesn't look tough as it sounds. But of course, in the middle of it all, there comes the time when the boys fight, cry, refused to listen to instruction etc, which in my condition, could drive me up the wall! And there are also time which I have to drive Ashraff to stationery store as he needs to buy some material for his Seni subject.

Plus, Aqieff has not been well. He has a runny nose, cough and fever. Now he is still on antibiotics. And because he does not feel well, his sleep is disrupted. He will wake up few times at night crying and I had to soothe him. So, I haven't got much rest even during the night. There are two nights which I have to leave Aqieff to sleep with Mak's maid because I badly need a rest. Do I feel guilty? Yes! Yes! Yes! I never leave him (or any of my children) to sleep with maid, except at one time when I was admitted to the hospital. But I have to accept certain things in a positive way...just to keep my sanity.

And I was still lucky as compared to many parent who are of the same situation as I am. One, because I have my mother with me. She helps me a lot, especially in terms of meal. At least, as I came back from the office, dinner is ready to be served. Two, Ashraff is kind, helpful and mature enough to alleviate my burden.

Hubby does his fair share of responsibility, remotely. He ordered our groceries need online so at about 8pm at night, the things shall arrive at Mak's house. "Takyah lah you pergi G1ant," katanya.

And for maid, well, I still need to send her home middle of this month. And so far, fat chance of getting a replacement in time. So I intend to move to Mak's house once the maid is no longer around. I don't quite prefer this notion as there is proper facility for the boys like study table or their own room. They have to sleep at Mak's room, and usually they'll wait for Mak to put them to sleep. Mak pulak has her own schedule, some late night TV series that she loves to watch. So, the boys will usually sleep late at night and ended up waking up late...Aliff will normally go to school at 8.30 or 9.00. Seriously, I don't quite like the arrangement. But I have not much choice, do I? I don't think I have the energy to handle all three + my big tummy alone especially during the morning rush.

For now, all I can hope and pray is for Allah to give me good health and energy so I can handle the situation well. Have to admit, they are few times that I almost breakdown and cry as my body could not take it anymore...my feet are aching as I'm on my foot most of the times and my back is killing me. I'm not strong...but I'm trying to be one. I just hope that my kids..and Hubby appreciate my effort so far.

Praying hard for things to get better...