On my mind: not apologizing for being Type-A and other musings 📝

A collection of bite-sized ideas and observations

Mar 27, 2025

When I scroll, I want to be entertained, amused, or impressed pretty quickly. This is likely because the internet has ruined my attention span—I’m not lingering long anywhere.

If your scrolling habits are like mine, this post is for you.

Sometimes, I haven’t quite had the time to fully develop or polish an idea I have bouncing around for a post, but I do have several partially-baked thoughts I’d like to document, anyway. Enter On My Mind, a collection of bite-sized observations that I’m freeing from my notes app and setting loose on the internet.

Buy me a coffee ☕️

Fair warning: there is no segue between these thoughts. These are partially-baked and delivered listicle style, perfect for tired moms and short attention spans. The commitment level here is very low—read the first sentence of one of these and want to skip it? Feel free! That’s the beauty of the listicle. Enjoy. 🙂

This week, I was at the dermatologist, chatting aimlessly with the receptionist and later the nurse about the weather. It’s SO windy today! Can you believe it might snow later this week? I know small talk gets a bad rap, and as someone who loves deep conversation, I get it. But at the doctor’s office, or with the coworker that isn’t your bestie, or with the Trader Joe’s cashier, offering up a comment about how much you enjoyed the sun today isn’t boring or lazy, it’s a kindness. It’s a springboard into other topics. Commenting on how March in the midwest is always unhinged is choosing a moment of connection rather than keeping an interaction purely transactional. As a very odd breed of introvert who loves people, I choose Team Connection, Team Talk About The Weather every time.
Lately I’ve been thinking about how, at the age of 36, I’m finally not apologizing (often) for being Type-A. Being Type-A means that I always text back (eventually), I return emails promptly, and I remember birthdays. This is because my calendars—multiple—are meticulous. We never run out of clean clothes because I take care of laundry on, you guessed it, a schedule. Being Type-A has led to mostly positives in my life. For example: being a schedule-mom and a sometimes obsessive researcher led to my learning probably too much about baby sleep. Because of this, both of my kids slept through the night from four months old on. This means not only uninterrupted sleep, but also protected me-time in the evenings. While perfectionism gone awry is problematic, mine mostly drives me to work hard in the areas that matter most to me. When harnessed appropriately, perfectionism is a gift.
Having small children basically means that there are several situations where bickering with your spouse is not a possibility, but a guarantee. All that stress and overstimulation has to go somewhere, and it seems that the most logical place for it is directly at the person who helped you create these tiny humans, naturally. If you get through a weekday morning or leaving the house in any capacity without sort of fighting with your husband, then this is a ✨Major Win✨. This means you are ⭐️Have-It-Together-Mom⭐️, and this is my favorite kind of mom to be. Recently, my husband and I revisited a contributing factor to this bickering. In a quick interaction, I noticed that he was somewhat stressed. The problem was, though, that he did not realize he was stressed. This led to a bit of arguing. Later, he offered this: while my emotional crayon box is the 96-count, his is the 8-pack of jumbo crayons. I countered that he at least had the box of 24 colors—some nuance! The fact remains, though, that we approach and feel emotions differently. The evolved version of myself would be able to keep this top of mind when my two year old is melting down, the dogs are barking, I’m carrying too many things, there’s somehow a stain on my shirt, and we’re already late. I’m guessing, though, that it might take some practice first. 🖍