Stay home, bring checks

"So, when do you think you might start bringing in some money from this writing thing?" hubby asked as we drove home from Oneonta yesterday.

I first answer with silence as I try to determine the motives behind his question. Rarely do the obvious ones apply.

"The easy answer is 'when I have more free time during the day'," I finally reply, "but since that won't be until the baby goes to preschool, I'm guessing that isn't the answer you're looking for."

"Soooo, when do you think you might start bringing in some checks?" he asks again.

"Well, I guess I should be able to now. Or soon, anyway," I hedge, "though I'm afraid of taking on a project, then finding I don't have the time to do it. At least, not without giving up sleep entirely!"

"Hrmph! You stay up too late anyway! You're the one who says you don't need much sleep."

"Yeah, but I need some sleep!"

"Other women do it, don't they?" he asks next. "How do they do it"

"Most of the women who bring home the kind of money you're thinking about have some form of childcare," I say,"school, a relative, an in-home babysitter or part-time daycare. They are able to get off by themselves for at least a portion of the day--not just at night after everybody, husband included, is asleep--so they can complete a thought without enduring 14 million interruptions and actually get to work on their writing. By the time I get to work on my writing stuff, I'm bleary-eyed and wiped out...physically and mentally."

"Well," hubby says, "when you start bringing in some checks, maybe we can think about doing something for a couple of hours a week."

Should I have mentioned a cleaning service, too?

Silence.

Silence.

Silence.

"I really want to buy that camp," hubby says.

Motive found.