Saving...I hate asking for help. I mean, I really really really don’t like it. I like to have everything I need available and if I don’t have it, I will figure it out thank you very much. On a recent family vacation we spent 6 marvelous days in Northern Minnesota with my amazing Irish Catholic in-laws.
It was a crazy wonderful week with families coming and going, dogs, bug spray, sun screen, camp fires, staying up late and going to bed sticky.
With all the hub-bub and people in and out there was no such thing as ‘fridge space’ for my coveted greek yogurt or ‘privacy’ everything was shared family style. I was SO UNCOMFORTABLE the first day poking in the fridge and eating something that I had not purchased…making toast with a loaf of bread I did not buy or rocking my baby boy to bed with milk someone else lugged home from the store. I felt like I was not doing my share. I made my hubs take me to the little corner store the next day to buy some of the things I knew my family would demolish in the house (i.e. chunky peanut butter) so I felt a little better, but I have to tell you everyone kept insisting anything in the house was available, no strings attached– JUST TAKE IT!! I tell you — handing me a peanut butter sandwich that I did not buy was extremely unnerving for me. Why is that? Why did I feel like I couldn’t accept the gift of peanut butter and bread from family members that WANTED me to just have some time to relax after traveling across the country with two toddlers?
So I confess, I have a problem. It makes me feel all weird inside to accept things from others… So you can imagine if I have trouble with peanut butter I am going to SURELY have a problem with what I am about to do.…
So, when I started this blog my goal was to write for 6 months and see if there was anyone out there who had anything in common with me. I wanted to answer the question…am I alone, and if not, who are the other women out there like me, are they cool? are they interesting? are they trying to figure out how to make life amazing and if so HOW are they doing that!?!?!
Just so you know I have been able to OVERWHELMINGLY answer yes to my questions.…and seriously the women who I have connected with are more amazing and interesting than I ever thought. So, now that I have answered those pressing questions…what now? What do we do with each other now that we know we exist? (and we know that we are awesome to boot?)…
I have an idea, or two…
But, I don’t want to tell you yet (don’t you hate it when people do that?!?!)
BECAUSE…I want to know what YOU would do first…
So answer this…IF YOU HAD A BILLION DOLLARS WHAT WOULD YOU MAKE OF OUR COMMUNITY? WHAT WOULD YOU DO, WHO WOULD YOU HELP? HOW?
Ok, so once I hear from you…I will let you know what I am thinking and also why it is going to make me super uncomfortable to do it:) stay tuned!!!!
Hands down, I would hire each one a personal assistant to help her with day-to-day things that can be hard, like grocery shopping, taking the dog to the vet, picking up prescriptions, taking the car to the shop, etc. I would also hire a personal chef for each Mom so that they have nutritious meals for them and their kiddos each night. Those are the biggest things that I know would help me if I had a billion dollars lying around:) It would be a big help and it would also give me more quality time to spend with my daughter playing:) I would also make sure each Mama had an all expenses paid trip 1x year for her and her husband to spend some quality alone time without the kids, and make sure that the kids had a Nanny at home to keep them on their schedule while Mom and Dad were away. I think that is a good start:)
And PS…I too have a major problem accepting things from people, no idea why. When we go to my in-laws we always end up at the store multiple times because I feel bad using anything of theirs. I always “sneak in” things like shampoo and yogurt hoping they don’t see it and feel offended. Its not like I don’t like their stuff, I just feel bad using it up.
Hi Laura,
First I want to say that I always read you blog and I wonder to myself how you do it all. But looking at myown self I think none of us give ourselves enough credit for what we can accomplish in one day. I work full time on a very stressful work.project that takes far more than 40 hours in a week, I am a full time student trying to complete my masters degree, I have two boys seven and three and I also do all the regular mom things that moms do. But some how I manage to do it all and not let my.kids know my head is about to.explode when they remind me at nine at night that they didn’t get desert or that I forgot something else. So I have to say I love my life I love being pulled at all ends because I want my little angel faced kids to not have to work.so.hard one day. What I don’t love is that the paycheck is never quite enough and that we.can’t go on vacation because all of these things cost money. Oh and let’s not.mention the.student loan payment that is going to come due soon. So if I had a billion dollars, I would pay off my neighborhoods school debt and also make it so other who wanted to go to school could and that all the kids had a college fund.sitting in the bank earning interest the next icouple years. I think we are in a day and age that having an education means everyhing but it is so hard to pay for it all. So that is what I would do, I am curious about others!!!!
Laura, are you asking what we do with regards to this site? I have responses but want to make sure I am understanding what you’re asking.
Lisa– yes:) mostly, what to do with the site…and what to do with the information that we have about HOW to be a Plane Jane… <3
I think if I was handed a billion dollars to improve the Plane Jane community, I would probably do a few things. First, I think I’d start a forum to go with the blog. It’s nice to check in once or twice a week and see something new, but it’s really nice at 2:00 in the morning after a particularily hard day, to chat with someone who’s saying, “me too!”
I would also employ staff so that there were resources available to continue to make Plane Janes available to everyone. Someone in charge of generating revenue (probably through advertising space). I would also hire someone to be in charge of marketing. Someone who could devote 3–4 hours a day, and someone who had the knowledge to navigate social media and could create the specific marketing goals of this site.
Then I would focus on content. In order to keep growing and to reach a larger audience, content has to be relevant, easy to understand, easy to acces and well organized. If you want to use social networking to market the site (and appeal to more advertisers, thereby garnering more resources that allow you to grow and reach out to new readers) you have to be able to reach a WIDE audience, but still maintain your focus on a smaller group. Does that make sense? For example, if there was a blog post with specific tips to help busy mom’s maintain their energy levels so they could deal with the demands of being the “only parent” for days, weeks or months at a time, that information is specific to “Plane Janes” but is also relevant and helpful to a much wider reader base.
After all that was set up, and since I still have hundreds of millions to work with (none of the above would really cost that much), I would pay “Plane Janes” to contribute. $20-$100 for a published article or blog post (obviously there would be guidelines for submissions and not every submission is going to be published, there would probably be a list of specific topics I would be looking for people to submit articles on too). It’s important for us to have something that is “ours” and is separate from our families, and we all know that, but because of the demands we face everyday, it’s hard to make that a priority. If I had the funds available, I would pay Plane Janes for their contributions so that it would be easier for them to make being involved in this community, a priority.
Lastly, I would set up a charity to help other “Plane Janes” in other parts of the world so that they could build their own communities to support each other. Our lifestyle is not new or unique. Families have always had to “do what they had to”, in order to take care of each other, even if that meant being separated for months or even years. Obviously their needs would be different than ours, but I would find out what their needs are and help them overcome them. Maybe it would be something as simple as paying for a weekly meal in the community so that women like us, could get together. Or maybe it would mean buying bicycles so that women who lived in isolated areas, and who’s husbands were working away, could more easily visit family and friends or other women who’s husbands work away.
Lol, maybe my thoughts are going a little off now, I don’t know. A billion dollars is such a huge amount of money. I look forward to seeing what your ideas are to make the most of this community
Amazing! I was so on the wrong track haha.…but I agree wholeheartedly with Talitha on this one in that regards.
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Looks great! Can’t wait to see it once you’ve got everything set up
My super crazy schedule has kept me from putting everything down, but I wanted to be sure I echoed the comment about the forum. I agree that it would be very helpful.
I just found your blog tonight and am SO thankful! We have enjoyed almost 11 years of a wonderful marriage, but all of it has included too much traveling. I am so thankful to have found someone who has a honest and humorous point of view on it all. Thank you! You have made my week!
Mendy! So glad to have you! With that much experience I would LOVE to have you contribute! We would love to hear your story:) if you are interested email me and I can give you the details:) planejanesblog@gmail.com
Laura
I will immediately grasp your rss as I can’t find your e-mail subscription link or e-newsletter service. Do you have any? Kindly let me recognize so that I may subscribe. Thanks.
On the right hand side of the page there is a place to “subscribe via email” enter your email there:) Hugs!
It seems u really understand quite a lot related to this subject matter and it demonstrates
by means of this particular post, given the name “If Peanut
Butter Makes Me Uncomfortable…this might make me reeeeeallllly nervous | Plane Janes”.
Thanks a lot ‚Cody
Great blog here! Also your site loads up fast! What host
are you using? Can I get your affiliate link to your host? I wish my website loaded up as fast as yours lol