Minions

Tomorrow Fritz and I are interviewing two potential au pairs; one is female and one is male. Several potential au pairs have been snatched up before we've had a chance to thoroughly vet them. And even while I tell myself not to rush into another bad match, there's nothing like quick turnover to make you feel like you'd better rush after all. As a coping mechanism, I've become fatalistic. Whatever happens, happens.

The idea of a male au pair is intriguing: mostly because I hope that he might have a little more energy and more willingness to be outside/active with Noah and Mattias. Trixie will more or less go along with whatever her brothers are doing: she's determined to keep up, and she's not a baby anymore. So it might work.

On the other hand, Fritz often dreams about how an au pair will help us keep our house so much cleaner. I'm not sure that would be this particular (male) au pair's strength. Also, I have a suspicion that this (male) au pair might not take direction very well from me. I'm trying to decide if I care: maybe Fritz takes over au pair management?

I've pointed these things out to Fritz. And he seems undeterred in his support for the male au pair. So, maybe we'll go with it. It feels really strange to continue to be stepping back from my role as Chief Parent. Not bad-strange. Not strange like I miss it. If anything, I feel like I SHOULD miss it more. Also, there's something highly appealing about leaving all these things to the men. Yes. Make the Thanksgiving Dinner, I'm tired of being a cook. Yes. Please take care of the sick children, I'm tired of being a nurse. Yes. Please help the children while they do their homework, I'm tired being a teacher. Yes. Please manage the babysitter/au pair/nanny, I'm not interested keeping an eye on ANYONE.

In keeping with the spirit of men doing more, I changed Siri on my phone to be an Australian male. Well, who doesn't want an Australian male assistant, right? He's not a particularly good assistant yet; I haven't figured the the best way to order him about. I need to improve my directness. But at least I taught him to pronounce Fritz's name correctly. Now I can order: Hey Siri! Call Fritz!

What I need, to go along with all my male minions, is a really good project to dig into. I would like to say that I am finding this at my job, but alas, no. I think we've already covered the situation: about how I just need to stay in this job and NOT go searching for a new one? Right. Unless they fire me. Which they may, because I'm also getting increasingly vocal about how they could improve.

In the meantime, a project, a project...I need something to keep my rather idle mind busy. I'm thinking about writing a book. There's plenty of time for daydreaming while I'll doing all this grunt work on the computer. So.. maybe I'll start working on a book. This is such a total cliché for a blogger, I know. And it's not really that I want to be a writer... I just need something more to do with my mind. And daydreaming up a plot and characters seems like it could sync well with the "work" at my job.