Do you have a grouchy day of the week?

Yesterday afternoon, as I was trying in vain to hide from my kids and whining to my husband about how put-upon I am, I had a revelation. For six days of the week, I'm a pretty happy person. I actually like Mondays-- I love that I have five full days of productivity ahead of me. But like any other sane person, I love the weekends too. I mean, who wouldn't, right? My kids are home, theoretically my husband is home, and we get a chance to get a little change of pace from the pace of the weekdays.

Sunday, however, is my cranky day. Church, although sometimes boring, often frustrating with little kids, and always too long, isn't the real problem. No, I think it's Sunday afternoon that really gets to me. You see, I think that I spend Sunday afternoon focusing too much on the fun things I didn't get to do over the weekend. For example, Eddie worked a 24-hour shift on Saturday. We usually get takeout and watch a movie on Saturday night. Because he wasn't home, I took the kids to McDonalds. But on Sunday, after church, I have a ritual of eating my leftovers from the night before. Since there were no leftovers, that sent me on a whole spiral of pissiness.

Also, even though I'm not in school these days, in my past, Sundays were the day to panic about what I didn't get done over the weekend and needed to do by Monday morning. I'd usually spend the whole weekend procrastinating and the evening feverishly reading or doing chemistry proofs or writing papers. Even though I don't have homework anymore, I think I'm left with the vestiges of homework anxiety.

So how do I cope? Usually, I nap for a few hours, and once I'm done napping, the day is half done and I can summon up the energy to face the rest of the day. Yesterday, however, Eddie slept off his 24-hour shift, while I spent the afternoon wrestling with the kids, just like I do the other six days of the week. By the time I woke him up, I was fuming. I haven't quite figured how to reconcile the whole idea of Sunday being a "day of rest" with my reality that it's just another day of cooking and changing diapers and keeping the kids from killing each other.

So, is anyone else willing to step out of the closet and share their grumpy day?

--originally published 8/14/06