The billable mom

My short stint as an attorney haunted me last night as I was trying to fall asleep. . . I got to wondering--if I billed my time now (in 6 min increments) what would an average day look like?

~630-800am
.10 slowly wake to the sounds of a delighted 9 mos old chatting with himself in a very wet diaper
.20 change wet diaper, warm bottle, feed bottle
.30 hang with happy baby in bed with happy husband and sleepy kitties

Then the day starts. . .
~8-830
.30 feed E breakfast, make coffee, fix my own breakfast
.10 check blackberry for any emergency emails that need immediate answering. If yes, head down to the office. If no, drink coffee while cleaning up after breakfast

~830
1.0 work in home office, prepare for day with clients
1.0 commute to City
1.5 work with clients, meetings

~12noon
1.10 lunch with friends

~130
1.5-2.5 client meetings

~330/4
1.0 commute down peninsula

~4/445pm
.30 errands on the way home
.20 commute home

~5/530pm
.20 hug & kiss my son after dropping my crap at the door
.20 play with E, who is exuberant to see mommy
.10 consider going to the gym

~6-7pm
1.0 hit the gym
OR
dinner for E, prep dinner for us, rub a dub with E, story time with E, bed time....

~8pm
1.0 prep and eat dinner with mom and husband

~9-10/11
1.0-2.0--either banking/emails during TV, working with wine, laundry, cleaning up or passing out. Depends on the day.

~10/11
blissfully hit the hay.

Doesnt sound that bad when I see it written out. How come living it is so much harder? Kind of reminds me of when I'd look at DTE (for non-lawyers, the billable hour/timekeeping system), I'd see days with 8.0 and think "huh, that's all I billed that day?" I'd also see days that read "14.2" or at my worst "17.0" and think--"yeah, that explains why I'm so tired, have no food in the house, havent seen my husband, forgot to leave a check for the housecleaner, found 6 UPS delivery notices on the house door, etc."

I guess it's a lot easier to digest when it's just a number on a screen. When you're living those hours, it's a different story. If I digress from the above schedule at all, ie if someone is sick (worse if it's me), if I want to have some *gasp* down time, or am more busy than usual at work--all of that is thrown out of whack and it seems like recovery is impossible.

So, I ask. . . what do we do then? Back in the day, when faced with the choice of sleeping or eating (when E was about 2-3 mos old), I always chose sleep. Now, I don't have that luxury.

I'm convinced now that if I could bill my mom time and my work time to my former clients, I'd be set for retirement by the time I'm 40. Ahh to dream.

Back to work. . .