Multi-Tasking is rubbish: I’m sure it’s a myth that Mums are good at it

So I’m a Mum, therefore I’m fabulous at multi-tasking right? Wrong!  Does that mean that I fail and can’t put it on my CV as we are all meant to be able to do after having kids?  But do I really want it anyway?

Multi-tasking; doesn’t that mean doing a pile of things all at once?  But then, are we really doing anything well?  Maybe it’s an idea to dump a pile of stuff and just do one thing at once, and do it well?  Practically, there are times when everything needs doing at once, and then fair enough it’s time to put on our super-multi-tasking cape and go for it.  But I reckon that should be less rather than more often, otherwise our super-chargers are going to run out of super.

Seriously, at the moment, with Little dimples and her molars, if I try to multi-task I fail abysmally (which I also don’t think I can spell, but I don’t have time to check how to do it!).  Interrupt me mid-thought and there is no way that thought is coming back!  I have lists, because my brain is a fuddled fog of bleeurggh.  I know that many people think that I’m amazingly organised, and really sorted; but I can promise you I’m not.  Not in comparison to project manager me, who wrote lists in her sleep and woke up with a plan for the day already sharp in her head (yes, I was a bit anal as a project manager, it probably wasn’t my greatest job choice).

Also my kids smell a rat immediately when I try it on them.  Does everyone else have different kids to me, who don’t want you to be actually ‘with’ them when playing with them?  Mine can sense within an instant if you are distracted by work/facebook/text messages/chores.  I’m not suggesting that I should always be a 100% giving them attention, but it does seem sensible that it’s about ‘quality time’ rather than ‘quantity’, so it’s better that I’m really ‘with’ them, when I’m with them heh?

So today I’m taking a stand against multi-tasking where at all possible because I’m rubbish at it.  I’m leaving the dog hair on the floor, the washing up in the bowl, the dog poo (yuk) in the garden (I’m going out), the washing in the basket and we are off to see a couple of local mummy bloggers and their kids.  If I have any energy left on our return I might tackle some of the chaos, but if not, then it’s going to have to wait, and wait and wait.  Sorry, if I didn’t get to your email this week as well, or forgot to reply to a conversation we were having mid-way through, or made absolutely no sense on twitter (I got the dates of the herts show wrong last weekend), but I’m basically rubbish at multi-tasking!