Going to eat again? Ha! Between kindergarten, job and dishwasher parents have little time for what childless people call life. Jonas Ratz tries to escape the everyday monster.
Everyday life has teeth. And he knows how to use it: a romantic candlelight dinner? Chomp. To go jogging? Snap. Finally playing the guitar again? Sip. Everyday life, this relentless, all-consuming creature, seems to develop a special appetite wherever it is necessary to make life more beautiful, brighter and more relaxed. He does not grab his fangs like a predator, fast and bloody. Everyday life is a connoisseur. He is chewing. And chews. And chews. His molars grind leisurely. And I'm in between. At least that's how I feel sometimes.
Between making breakfast, bringing to school, baby wrap, day care, work, dinner, tidying up, laundry, paperwork and bedroom, everything that I find beautiful, bright and relaxed remains on the track. "Metro, boulot, dodo" - subway, work, sleep - that was how the French poet Pierre Béarn described the voracious monster everyday in the 1960s. With children - to stay in the staff rhyme scheme - would probably still "bébé" added.
Because even if Frederik, Oliver and Elisa, of course, not the cause of all the days in which I commute between monotony and excessive demands: To solve the mess they contribute at least not at the moment. Frederik lounging on the couch with "Harry Potter", Oliver building MoMA with Lego and Elisa flirting with the power outlet while I try to make dinner, copy tax ID and clear the dishwasher. I have to think briefly of Vishnu, one of the three male high gods in Hinduism, who in many depictions has four arms to help him fight demons. I do not want to talk him into it, everyone his hobby, but: Whether he could probably help out in the evening, so on 450-euro basis?
We need rituals!
Breathe. One after the other. First the kids to bed. Then the kitchen. Then the tax code. Metro, boulot, dodo, bébé - and tomorrow again. I mean to hear the everyday monster gossip with relish.
It is a regulated daily routine actually not so bad, I have heard, he was even recommended for families. Children are philistines, follow habits and register subtly when things are not going according to plan. And that's what I'm going to take advantage of now, I think, as I carry Elisa, who has just awakened again, in the Ergo Carrier through the living room, pushing together scattered blocks with his foot and mentally looking for the vaccination certificate for the pediatrician : I beat everyday life with his own weapons.
Rituals. We need rituals! Every night one of the boys has to help with the table. Every night the Lego is put together. Frederik has to pack the school bag the night before, while Oliver helps with the dishwasher. As a reward, the boys are allowed to choose a game every evening, we play together and after brushing my teeth, I klimpre something to fall asleep on the guitar.
And while we're at it: Every Wednesday evening Jana and I reserve for us. The babysitter takes the kids (as soon as Elisa joins in), and we have a blind date. We surprise each other alternately with everything that is beautiful, bright and relaxed (well, and taxes once a year). Take that, everyday!