I am a multi-tasker. I take great pride in this. Apparently, it's very common for women to not only indulge in multi-tasking, but thrive upon it. I often monitor my ferrets' out of cage time while watching a video online, playing a game on Pogo.com and taking an online survey. I get bored doing just one thing at the time.
My ferrets have trained me well for future motherhood. Multi-tasking is a must with ferrets and kids since you have to watch everything going on around you while heading off potential disasters. I probably won't be able to let my kids just run around while I indulge in internet time, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Another good mothering skill I've picked up is calm in the face of crisis.
This weekend we had a couple of college friends staying with us. I'd promised to apply eye makeup to one of them before she went out for the evening and so I left my boyfriend, Will*, with the ferrets while I played makeup artist. I was sitting in my roommate's room swiping eye shadow onto my friend Susan when I heard Will call me.
"Honey?" he said.
"Yes, sweety?" I replied, finishing up the eye shadow.
"Fox turned over the punch." Fox is our number one son. I mean ferret. He has a tendency to climb onto the furniture and, in this case, turned over a glass of red kool-aid. "Can you come get him?" Will continued.
"In a minute." I moved on to lining Susan's widening eyes as we listened to the details of the incident.
"There's punch all over the futon and he's red. Can you come here?"
"Scruff him with one hand and clean up with the other." This is what I would have done if I had been in there. 'Scruffing' ferrets, or holding them by the loose skin on the back of their neck, is a safe way to calm them down and immobilize them temporarily.
"I can't, he's going crazy and the rest of them are trying to drink punch off the futon cushion," Will's voice informed me from across the hallway.
I sighed. "He's obviously not a mother," I told the three girls sitting with me.
They laughed and I realized that what I had said was very true. I realized that even though none of us are mothers yet, or plan to be any time soon, we all pride ourselves on our womanly common sense and ability to take control of a situation. The two friends we had visiting are both teachers and one of them said, "Yeah, a mother or a teacher would have that cleaned up in no time." We laughed again, sure in our capability and proud of the natural wiring that makes us tough in messy situations and calm in the face of crisis.
I finished Susan's makeup and went across the hall to mop up the punch and give Fox a bath in the kitchen sink.
*All human names have been changed.
I lawled. ^_^
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