Park Slope Moms

I'm about to move to >cringe< Park Slope. It's a neighborhood known for its precious moms -- women who used fertility treatments to home birth the twins, Ava and Dash, who are treated like royalty. The joke (or not) is that these babies are spoonfed organic smashed potatoes with rosemary and pomegranate, unless they're not in the mood, and then they watch Baby Einstein videos while being massaged with lavendar oil.

I used to think that was a terribly unfair, terribly misogynistic take on Brookln motherhood. After all, I'm moving in. And I have my own princess I want to take to the park. But it's all fun and games until you're neighbors.

We're doing renovations in our apartment, and our co-op neighbor has a young child. Apparently, he's quite sickly: any sound wakes him up, any dust gives him nosebleeds. As you can imagine, it's difficult to renovate an apartment without making sound or dust. We're doing our best, but it's not good enough -- to satisfy her, we've had to hire a lead expert and a dust and air expert, and respond to numerous passive-aggressive emails about his "naptime".

So when do we call it? When do gear up for a fight? We want to have a good experience in our new apartment, but right now we're terrified of making a peep, and we haven't even moved in yet. Ah, moving in. Sounds like heaven. (Gulp.)

Oh no! More chores!

It's a scary time for us all financially, and I know I'm not the only one taking a look at my monthly expenditures to see where I can scale back. Sadly, when you're saving money, you're almost always losing time.

Check out my savings and the new chores they generate:

$20/week on drycleaning = 3 hours washing and ironing
$40/week on takout = 2.5 hours shopping, cooking and cleaning
$20/week on lunches = 1.5 hours shopping, cooking and packing

Dang. That's nearly an extra workday. I was going to roll up my sleeves and work harder/faster/better, but then I took a deep breath and reconsidered. Good thing. Here's my plan instead:

1. Figure out what's 'good enough' to leave alone. Dirty dishes bother me, but I can do the laundry less frequently.
2. Find a way to combine some tasks. I'll iron while I watch TV.
3. Renegotiate with my husband. I'm thinking he can take a turn cleaning the bathroom, right?