Multitasking

I can chew gum and walk at the same time.  I can do the laundry and wash the dishes at the same time.  But there are just situations in which I can't multitask.  Now I know it's cliche, yes, but nothing is cliche' without a bit of truth, I have friends who cannot chew gum and walk without tripping.  The key is in knowing what you can and cannot do simultaneously.

Sometimes getting into a situation can be much easier than getting out of it.  We walk along through life, humming along, and see something that looks interesting.  Though the activity in and of itself may be fine and dandy given the proper circumstances, it may not be appropriate to get involved at that time, no matter how fun it may seem.  We have to count the cost to see if it's really worth it or not.

Take Gabriela, my darling 15 month old toddler.  I can say that now, because she walks around the house like she owns it, with only a few trips along the way as she still occasionally entangles her feet with one another.  She loves getting into anything and everything, just like any other toddler.  But it's not good for her to have access to everything at this time.  Even the things she is allowed to play with most of the time can be inappropriate given certain instances.

This morning, she was toddling around while I was doing some straightening.  She had eaten an early lunch, as is usual, since she goes down to nap around noon, and was enjoying the freedom to walk for a few minutes.  I saw her playing with Benjamin's toy cars and thought it was so cute to watch her purse out her lips as she made "vrrrr" sounds.  Ok, so her noises were closer to "frrrrrrr" but she had the general idea.

I thought I saw something on the back of her hand and got a tissue.  She has a runny nose today, so I thought she had just rubbed her hand on her face.  As I drew closer to her, I noticed it didn't look like snot at all, but more like yellow grease.  That was when I saw the piece of bread next to her with the butter.  Then I saw the cars that were covered in butter.

Oh, did I mention that I allowed Benjamin to make himself a piece of bread and butter today?  No?  Ok, well, I let him do that.  But he didn't eat all the bread.  As he explained later, he had too much butter on his bread so he gave it to his baby sister.  Wasn't that so sweet of him?  Truly, it was.  He loves to share with her...most of the time, anyway.

Well, see, I didn't notice he had given her the bread and butter until I saw it on her hand, the car box, and on several Hot Wheels.  If they needed an oil change before, they sure didn't need one now!  It was not a big deal, really, for me to clean her up, but she was most unhappy about me taking the cars away from her.  She eventually calmed down after I washed them off and gave them back to her, and she lay down peacefully for her nap shortly thereafter.

Eating some bread and butter was fine.  Playing with little cars was fine.  But doing both at the same time proved to be most inconvenient for her.  Because she got butter in the cars, I had to interrupt her fun time to get both her and the toys cleaned up before it made a bigger mess on the carpet.

It's the same story as we get older.  We want to do too many things at once and end up mixing things that shouldn't be combined.  Because of our impatience, busyness, or mere thoughtlessness, we make a mess of things and end up having to take more time in the end than if we had just kept them separate to begin with.

I live in a world of perpetual multitasking.  Let's face it:  with kids, you multitask or nobody survives.  But even so, I live in a society that rewards multitasking and, sometimes, with things that shouldn't be combined.  Things like playing with cars and eating is resolved easily enough, but some situations can be downright dangerous.  Running is good for you.  Cutting paper with scissors is fine.  Running with sharp scissors is dangerous; you can trip and impale yourself.  Reading a book can be educational or mentally stimulating.  Driving to work is a necessity.  Reading a book while driving is dangerous and could kill a number of people.

To every thing there is a time and a purpose for everything under the heavens.  I cannot tell my children I love them and expect them to believe it if I am screaming bloody murder at them or completely ignoring them most of the day.  I can show them I love them by telling them and by expressing it through reading with them or playing with them.  I cannot teach them to use their time wisely if I'm bumming around on the couch watching movies and have no housework completed.  But they can learn to pick things up in the living room while a movie is going or to push pause in order to get some work accomplished.   Multitasking is not simply limited to the physical well being, but to the whole person's health.  I just want to make sure that when I do choose to multitask, I am taking all the circumstances into consideration so that not only I will remain safe, but so that I can positively impact others.