I am going to go back in time a bit today. It was the day that I realized that I could not do everything. It was 1997 and I wanted to get my son one of those really great wooden swing sets for his birthday. I scraped together money that I did not have and that I should not be spending. It was one of those things, if you know what I mean. I did not care. I just wanted him to have it.
I had to pick what features I wanted on it and design the layout. It took me months to make a decision on my own and finally put my plan into action. Here is another thing about single parenting that can sometimes be difficult….decision making. I purchased the wooden swing set and it was a beauty. It had two swings, a trapeze, one of those wooden two-seater horses to swing on, an inclining plank and climber, and best of all, a gazebo that you had to climb a ladder to get to. A red flag waved in the breeze from the top of the gazebo. I fell in love with it. One problem remained. How do I get it put together?
Feeling invincible as usual, I watched the video tape explaining how easy it was. It looked relatively easily and I just knew that I was capable of doing the task. The big day arrived. It was delivery day. A huge, very long truck came rolling up my street. I thought, “Wow, that truck is so long! I wonder what it is doing on this street.” It stopped in front of my house. I went out to see what was going on. The delivery guy told me that the truck was too heavy to pull in the driveway. He then stated that he could not bring the items up to the garage and that they would have to be left at the bottom of the driveway. Panic set in. There were about 25 boxes and a whole lot of wood. I knew at that point that I was defeated. This project was bigger than I thought it would be. I knew that I could not do it. I stated my plea and offered him some money to bring it all up to the garage. Apparently, he took pity on me.
I am not one to look helpless, lost, or needy so this was hard for me to do. At this point, I felt that I had no choice, as I really was helpless, lost, and needy.
All the boxes lie on my garage floor. I took one look at it all, went in the house, and closed the door. Not today. I do not want to deal with this today. I had no choice but to call a handyman. There was no way that I could do this project and I realized that although there are many things that I can do, this was not one of them. I had to stop kidding myself and face my reality.
Two handymen, 8 hours later and minus $100 from my pocket it was completed. It was gorgeous. It was worth it. There were many, many hours of children playing on that swing set. There were picnics in the gazebo and stories read up there near the treetops. A costly decision….yes. A bad decision….absolutely not.
For all the trouble that it created, it was worth it in the end. There are things that I will attempt to fix although I do not like doing it, but I now call a handyman for the bigger projects. I can admit when I have been defeated. Over the years I have come to accept the fact that I cannot do it all and that it is okay to accept help. I feel okay about my capabilities, and myself but that was a lesson that I will never forget.
Angel Lynn writes in weight loss, single parenting, and health.