She sits at the kitchen table and does math. In fact, she takes up to two hours to finish one math lesson if she's having a bad day and feeling easily distracted. Even then, we're lucky if she finishes it at all. It's not that the math in the book is hard for her, or that she's bored with it. It's not that she doesn't like it. Eyes wander up to the window leading into the back yard, and I can tell that she longs to be out there, not necessarily in our back yard, but anywhere out in nature. Like mother like daughter.
I've been working a lot lately. I went back to work part time 6 months ago, and three months ago I went full time on nights. The more I work, the more I wish I could be 'out there somewhere' spending time with my daughter. Where we had all the time in the world to spend together before, the time we have is few and far in between now. The time I do have with her is spent doing chores, running her to baseball practice, and doing schoolwork. Quitting my job isn't really an option, just like stopping math and not finishing the math book this year isn't an option. It's easy for me to feel stuck in this cycle of work, sleep, school, chores, meals, work. I imagine my daughter must feel the same way sometimes. She does get to go out and play with her friends, but it's easy to feel like something's still missing in all of the day to day routine.
