After the summer holidays, when they are all back at
school, I will attack this basket full of little bits of
mending. After the Yomim Tovim, I will... After Pesach, I
will...
Will I, really? WilI I give Motty the regular attention he
requires? Will I sit and read a story to Shimi every night as
I promised him? Will I see about the orthodontic treatment
that the two girls seem to be needing?
Our year is made up of events and landmarks, which are happy
or unfortunately, sometimes sad. Before the baby, after the
baby. Before the daughter's wedding, after the wedding. Two
different periods of time. There are times when a busy, tired
mother just cannot push herself further. Times when she has
brought six tired little children from the park, fed them,
bathed them and got them into bed, and then allowed herself
to flop onto the couch. She is, after all, not a machine, but
a human being, and she has been on the go all day.
However, procrastination -- pushing off essential tasks for a
time when she will feel less pressured, seems as futile as
running up a huge bill at the local grocer's. She will never
have too much spare time while she has a house full of little
people and big people. There is never enough time in the day
and the tasks are endless -- thank G-d!
For those women who still use the iron, if they see that a
shirt is missing a button, it will only take a couple of
minutes to sew it on, Then and There. The pile of sewing
will be almost insurmountable if left till after the... But a
stitch while playing a game with the children before they go
to bed doesn't seem such a chore.
When you have a dozen children of various ages, each with
their own demands, it is a rare mother who can juggle the
twenty-four hours of the day to fit it all in. Thus, some
procrastination is inevitable. If a big supermarket order
arrives in the house and you decide to put it away later, you
may be sorry. Cleaning up the spilt sugar, wiping up the
broken eggs and sweeping away the split peas which went
everywhere when the toddler was left to his own devices takes
far more time than putting things away immediately.
We push off paying the bill at the grocer's for as long as we
can. Unfortunately, there is often not enough money left at
the end of the month... two months... a year. It depends on
the patience of the grocer.
Some people run up bills because it is more convenient for
them to pay a lump sum at the end of the month. They know the
check will be covered. Furthermore, they do not trust their
small children with money, so having a charge account seems
the most sensible thing to do. However, there are many people
who do not have the wherewithal to pay for all the items they
buy. They always have more month left at the end of the
money.
People who see the trap they are falling into, sit down
together, husband and wife, and work out what comes in and
what they spend. If they see that they spend more than they
earn, they have two options. They could try to earn a little
extra in some way, or they could attempt to cut down on their
expenditures. There are people who run gemachs who
give excellent advice on how to live within one's means.
They all explain that pushing off the payements just does
not work!
It seems that some people are by nature procrastinators, and
others are by nature so impatient to get things done that
they want it done yesterday. If they ask someone to post a
letter, regardless of the fact that the letterbox will not be
emptied till the morning, that letter has to go into the box
right NOW. They pay their bills the day after they arrive,
because they are inherently incapable of putting things off
for a few days. Like most people who go to extremes, they can
be difficult to live with. However, after reading this, the
procrastinators will continue to say, "After..." and the
others will no doubt continue to hustle themselves!
