1. Turn Microsoft Outlook off before hosting a WebEx meeting (bake-table reminders, no!).
2. Take your potty breaks during chargeable hours (5:01 p.m. is too late).
3. Never, ever turn over or pick up stray laundry items from the basement without spousal reinforcement (hairy spiders!).
4. Always cast your eyes down while sitting in the bleachers during a swim meet, unless you want to volunteer for a five-hour chunk of time (awful, I know, but…).
5. Write fake reality TV script about swim parents at the Y and make a small fortune (ka-ching!).
6. Leave family room five minutes before the end of Toy Story 3 (Kleenex!).
7. Admit to yourself that Katniss-style braids don’t work on your daughter’s American Girl doll (duh, reality check).
8. Accept that a certain kitchen mop is almost always guaranteed to be out of cleaning solution, pads, batteries or all three when floor is at its stickiest (is that apple juice?).
9. Try not to outdo your kid in the nonexistent Lego building competition (that pile of bricks looks nothing like the Eiffel Tower blueprint in your head).
10. Marvel at the simplicity of it all (life in five-minute coffee break segments is good after all).
Marion Kase is a Berks County, PA mom of two. This post is adapted from her blog, Helicopter-Caterpillar. 
