I hate being oncall. No matter how calm it is, you just have to be ready with your phone at all time. And even though you can brag about having 6 hour of sleep, you know very well that the 6 hour consists of you waking up every half an hour looking at your phone just in case you missed a call.
Then the next uncool thing about being oncall is the postcall part - sleepyhead. Today, I took the kids a bit earlier from their babysitter and brought Yusuf for his 5 month vaccination. Then we head back home at 4pm.
I was yawning all the way home. Upon reaching home, I had a million list of things to do running in my head. Asar prayer. Evening breast pumping session. Washing + sterilizing ebm bottles. Folding up clothes. Packing bag for oncall again tomorrow, haih. Packing bag to go back to KL this weekend. Cook for dinner. Hand washing my tudung. Bathing the kids and putting them up in their pyjamas. Mr husband is going for his night shift in a few hours.... and the list goes on and on. And as the list goes on , I need to prioritize which one to do first. But my body just couldn't handle it. So, I said "abi, can I just get a 10 minute sleep?"
And to that he replied "Rehat je la dulu ayang, jangan fikir kerja rumah, kerja rumah takkan pernah habis. Abi tengok anak-anak"
When I wake up half an hour later, I have spaghetti carbonara ready on the dinner table. The ebm bottles are sterilized and on the drying rack. My 2 litre water bottle that I bring to work daily has been refilled. 'Ayyan who has just pooped has been cleaned too. The kids dirty clothes are already in the laundry bucket.
And you know what, half of the weight on my shoulder felt lifted!
He just won my heart again with his kindness.
I know some of you will feel that it's nothing much. But I have trained myself to look at all these little things and feel grateful for it. Before getting married, I just put at the back of my mind that I might get the worst kind of husband - the one who will never do the house chores. The one who will never say thanks. The one who will never play with the kids. The one who will never look after the kids. The one who will leave his dirty clothes on the floor for me to pick up. Because you will never really know someone until you have lived under the same roof with him. It is easier to have low expectation and be happy when it's not bad than having high expectation and getting frustrated when your expectation is not met.
So when my husband does all of the above things, I will instantly feel happy and grateful. And of course I said thanks to him so many times this evening. Upon sitting down at the dinner table. After finishing up his delicious carbonara. He even offered to wash the dishes after that. And again I thanked him.
I am not telling you this because I have the perfect husband. No. Actually I don't have the perfect husband. Because I am not perfect either. It's not about life being perfect and easy for me. It's about just choosing to be HAPPY and GRATEFUL no matter what.
I am writing this down, because I know somehow along the way, we will get caught up in the busy-ness of our working schedule, doing the never ending house chores, playing with the kids, having misunderstanding with each other; and I am afraid we will forget all the nice things we have done for each other.
Women, especially, will tend to get their emotion get the better of their rationale. And in the midst of the fight, you will see nothing but only the bad side of your other half. And we don't want to get to that don't we?
Take home message today, CHOOSE to be HAPPY and GRATEFUL! And be generous with saying THANK YOU to your partner. Never underestimate the power of just saying thank you. Sometimes at the hospital, when I am tired of seeing patient after patient, then along came a patient who said " thank you doctor", all of the tiredness just gone like that. And the best thing is, it's free!
So, thank you for reading =)
Then the next uncool thing about being oncall is the postcall part - sleepyhead. Today, I took the kids a bit earlier from their babysitter and brought Yusuf for his 5 month vaccination. Then we head back home at 4pm.
I was yawning all the way home. Upon reaching home, I had a million list of things to do running in my head. Asar prayer. Evening breast pumping session. Washing + sterilizing ebm bottles. Folding up clothes. Packing bag for oncall again tomorrow, haih. Packing bag to go back to KL this weekend. Cook for dinner. Hand washing my tudung. Bathing the kids and putting them up in their pyjamas. Mr husband is going for his night shift in a few hours.... and the list goes on and on. And as the list goes on , I need to prioritize which one to do first. But my body just couldn't handle it. So, I said "abi, can I just get a 10 minute sleep?"
And to that he replied "Rehat je la dulu ayang, jangan fikir kerja rumah, kerja rumah takkan pernah habis. Abi tengok anak-anak"
When I wake up half an hour later, I have spaghetti carbonara ready on the dinner table. The ebm bottles are sterilized and on the drying rack. My 2 litre water bottle that I bring to work daily has been refilled. 'Ayyan who has just pooped has been cleaned too. The kids dirty clothes are already in the laundry bucket.
And you know what, half of the weight on my shoulder felt lifted!
He just won my heart again with his kindness.
I know some of you will feel that it's nothing much. But I have trained myself to look at all these little things and feel grateful for it. Before getting married, I just put at the back of my mind that I might get the worst kind of husband - the one who will never do the house chores. The one who will never say thanks. The one who will never play with the kids. The one who will never look after the kids. The one who will leave his dirty clothes on the floor for me to pick up. Because you will never really know someone until you have lived under the same roof with him. It is easier to have low expectation and be happy when it's not bad than having high expectation and getting frustrated when your expectation is not met.
So when my husband does all of the above things, I will instantly feel happy and grateful. And of course I said thanks to him so many times this evening. Upon sitting down at the dinner table. After finishing up his delicious carbonara. He even offered to wash the dishes after that. And again I thanked him.
I am not telling you this because I have the perfect husband. No. Actually I don't have the perfect husband. Because I am not perfect either. It's not about life being perfect and easy for me. It's about just choosing to be HAPPY and GRATEFUL no matter what.
I am writing this down, because I know somehow along the way, we will get caught up in the busy-ness of our working schedule, doing the never ending house chores, playing with the kids, having misunderstanding with each other; and I am afraid we will forget all the nice things we have done for each other.
Women, especially, will tend to get their emotion get the better of their rationale. And in the midst of the fight, you will see nothing but only the bad side of your other half. And we don't want to get to that don't we?
Take home message today, CHOOSE to be HAPPY and GRATEFUL! And be generous with saying THANK YOU to your partner. Never underestimate the power of just saying thank you. Sometimes at the hospital, when I am tired of seeing patient after patient, then along came a patient who said " thank you doctor", all of the tiredness just gone like that. And the best thing is, it's free!
So, thank you for reading =)
Comments