Because frankly even as a single person, responsible for no one but my self and a dog – I had to do very strange things to make sure my dog was taken care of when I was working 85 – 90 hours a week or more, and traveling 60 – 90% of the time. For example, I lived with my grandparents for a bit and groveled to doggie daycares to still take my dog even though he didn't play nice with the other dogs :(. That probably sounds silly to all of you with children or 9 – 5 jobs where you punch your time card and go home with a star for the day. Or people that don't have a 110 pound dog. It probably sounds silly to everyone.

I think its hilarious that people have nice, neat, organized lives. It seems magical, because I have never experienced that.

Five years ago, I lived in Little Rock, AR and worked in Washington DC. A very long commute. My best friend was staying in my apartment for a clinical rotation. I had the reminder to pay the electric bill in my email, but it was buried under about 150 other emails that seemed a lot more important. Actually, I had several electric bills in my email. I'm sure they were in my real mail too, but I hate paper and mail. And probably threw them away or put them in a pile to be forgotten. I got a call from my friend because the electricity was out. To get it turned on that night it cost extra money, and she had to run around town finding a place to pay it. It was a mess.

I understand that I could have been more organized and should have used automatic bill payment. Or I could have just asked my friend to take care of it, since she was living there for free. But frankly none of those things were anywhere near the top of my to do list. I was too busy trying to remember when I had to be at what airport and trying to do a good job at work. I can not fathom adding little people that depended on me to that. My head would explode.

I really appreciate hearing stories about other people whose lives are messy :) Its not a bad thing, its just the way some people are.

And as for your kids – my parents are like me and several times they forgot to schedule the oil in our heater to be refilled before it went out. I don't really understand the kind of heater we had – we moved to that house when I was 15 and this is the first house we ever lived in where this was a necessity. But anyway, we lived in Indiana. It got cold for a night or two (because apparently these refills had to be scheduled in advance). But we were fine. It really wasn't that big of a deal. I still insisted on sleeping in my room in the basement – even though it was colder. I had a million blankets.

I have not stayed at one job at somewhere like GE or anywhere for 60 years. I started in public accounting (accounting for people w/ personalities and ADD) and left after 5 years to fail my first business attempt (well, the first one after college, there were more before that). I then took 6 months off to take care of my dying grandma. And now I'm onto the next business venture :). And I am temporarily broke. But that is because caring for grandmas w/ brain cancer doesn't pay well monetarily, but it does pay well in memories. :) OMG, that was the corniest thing I have ever written. And this is the longest blog comment ever written. That is a lot of records for one night.

No wonder they have so much anxiety, you are really doing THEM a big disservice by sleeping in the same bed, my God. Do you need super nanny?

Don't worry about the kids. I lost my car and everything I owned. I moved my familiy into government housing. Guess what, my kids (now in high school & college) frequently refer to the 'good old days' when they used to ride the city bus and walk everywhere. They laugh about the tinfoil on the TV rabbit ears, they joke about ketchup soup and thrift store clothes. If there is one thing I can promise you, kids love you, not your money.