Ronnie recently made a big decision to step down from his Fitness Manager position at the gym and just focus on personal training. A part of his decision was for financial reasons, and the other part was personal. The management position was causing him a fair amount of stress, taking the joy out of doing something he loves. So now he’s doing only the part he loves, which also includes working fewer hours during the day, and being able to leave as soon as his last appointment in the evening is done. While managing, he used to have every intention of leaving after his final appointment, but then managerial duties would call, and he’d be required to stay later.
I don’t know if either of us realized how much positive this change would bring us. First, I didn’t realize how stressed out Ronnie was every evening and weekend until the stress was gone. He is like a different person now when he walks through the door after work; much more relaxed and in a lighter mood.
Second, he usually has a few free hours during the middle part of the day that he used to do admin work. Now, he uses those hours to take a nap, go for a motorcycle ride, run errands, or best of all, come home and CLEAN THE HOUSE. That last item has been nearly the best thing about all of this. Though he’s not home much more to help me with Skyler, his coming home and cleaning has taken such a weight off the things for me when I’m home alone with Skyler. There is just such an amazing, peaceful feeling of walking into a clean house, even if your hands are full of Toddler & Toddler Accessories, after they’ve whined the entire way home from daycare.
I’m sad to say this for the risk of sounding terribly materialistic and shallow, but the new state of cleanliness in our home has made me a happier person all around, and certainly improved Ronnie’s and my relationship. One of my favorite mom bloggers described this phenomena rather comically (as usual) in the last paragraph of this post. Ha ha.
The ultimate result of these changes is more enjoyable family time. As they say, when momma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy, and of course the opposite holds true. We spent a lovely Friday evening last night at one of our favorite Westport restaurants, McCoy’s with Skyler charming all the restaurant staff and guests, followed by stopping at not one, but two parks around the neighborhood. Another family of young ones at the second park commented how it’s funny the way as parents we spend our Friday evenings nowadays. Yep, we still “partied” in Westport last night, but not the way we used to. And it’s still a great life.