Other People's Trash

My boss is my husband. We haul trash. We have been compared to ‘Sanford and Son.” As the adage goes, “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” This is true. It wasn’t until the car was pushed out of the garage that I began thinking that we may have a problem.

As a “stay at home mother” my duties entail the usual: take care of the children, keep the house clean, keep up on the laundry, play with the children, grocery shop and prepare food. Oops, I almost forgot the other duties I squeeze in between my already busy days: answer the work phone, scheduling employees, making (and changing) daily driver routes, invoicing and preparing payroll. I am sure I am missing a few items from both lists; however, these are the duties that keep me the busiest throughout each day.

My friends have always told me how lucky I am to be home with my children. In my mind, I laugh to myself: “if you only knew.” Often times, I wonder if I would have been a better wife and mother had I gone back to work. Maybe it’s easier to leave the house early in the morning, stop by the market on the way home and rush the kids into bed only to start all over the next day. I am sure that phone calls taking precedence over my children won’t get me nominated for mother of the year; however, I am hopeful that when our kids look back on their childhood they will remember all the “fun” outings and treasures they received from other people’s “trash.”