Many people asked me what is like to be Susan Polgar for a day. Well, I will give you an example of a day in my life. I do this 7 days a week. I am a Mom, a Chess Mom, a teacher, a business woman, a columnist, a blogger, a chef, a psychologist and everything else in between. I will round off the time since of course I could not remember everything by the minute. Please remember that not every day is like this. This is just an example of one day.
2:30 PM, picked up children from school
2:35 PM, drove to the city to drop elder son off at a chess tournament, followed by a sleep over at a friend’s home
3:10 PM, dropped younger son off at the babysitter
3:15 PM, taught chess in a NY City School
4:40 PM, finished class and went to pick up younger son
4:45 PM, picked up younger son and headed back to the Polgar Chess Center – Taught him math and spelling while being stuck in traffic
6:25 PM, dropped younger son with a babysitter
6:30 PM, taught a student at the Polgar Chess Center
7:05 PM, made a quick post on the blog during a brief break
8:00 PM, picked up younger son, brought him home and prepared dinner
8:10 PM, ate dinner
8:35 PM, finished dinner
8:40 PM, helped younger son with extra math, spelling, writing and reading
9:05 PM, made another quick post on the blog during a brief break
9:15 PM, prepared younger son for bed
9:20 PM, put younger son in bed and reading him a bedtime story
9:30 PM, returned business phone calls and calls from the media
10:15 PM, checked email and responded to inquiries, fan email and business email; Finished writing a chess article as well as some additional pages in an upcoming chess book
12:20 PM, scanned the Internet for general and chess news for blog – Posted good stuff on the blog
3:00 AM, bed time
7:30 AM, time to wake up and prepared breakfast
8:00 AM, checked email and made posts to the blog
9:30 AM, headed to Princeton, NJ for chess promotion
12:00 PM, arrived in Princeton, taked to organizer, received a tour of the facility
12:30 PM, started the lecture
1:40 PM, book signing and posing for pictures with chess fans of all ages
2:05 PM, began a 35 board simul
5:00 PM, finished simul and headed back to NY
7:15 PM, picked up elder son from a sleepover and headed back home – Discussed how his day was and how he felt after a disastrous tournament
8:15 PM, arrived home
And basically, the same routine continued taking care of children, returning phone calls, emailing, posting, writing, etc.
This is why I am disgusted to read the USCF forum and see that some people have nothing else better to do with their lives than to be vicious, malicious, playing chess politics, attacking, insulting, demeaning and harming USCF members, sponsors, supporters and organizers, etc.
Instead of contributing and doing positive things for chess, they chose to argue, insult and attack each other all day long. I remember a commercial on TV a while back with 2 guys screaming back and forth: “Taste great! Less filling!” They accomplish nothing but flaming each other back and forth.
And some of these people get mad because I ignore their silly political games. They think everyone has so much time on their hands to waste. This is one of the big reasons why I decided to run for the upcoming executive board. I love chess and I cannot stand to see the same faces ruining chess years after years. Unless this destructive pattern is stopped, the USCF has no chance of becoming a strong and viable organization.
Well. this is not the life i like. But i guess you like it. If you do not, maybe you have to give up sometthings that you like less. You need time with yourself and maybe and some body exersice. And more time to sleep!!
Awesome! You’re the best! Thanks for everything you do for chess!
I don’t want to be Susan Polgar.
🙂
Or maybe just when receive somes moneys.
Interesting schedule. Let’s check what’s going on in the kitchen.
8 PM picked up kid, brought him home and cooked dinner.
8:10 PM (just 10 minutes later, the child, being all ready to go, is taken home and dinner is cooked) you start eating. All that in 10 minutes flat. Must have been some dinner.
Now for breakfast:
7:30 AM Wake up after just 4.5 hours sleep. Start to prepare breakfast. The child having apparently disappeared, (most Moms would appreciate that) Susan, cooks, eats and is all done by
8:00 AM Rest of day – no mention of lunch.
In my world, cooking a good, nutritious meal takes somewhat longer than that. Children aren’t always ready on the dot like that, either.
Susan ought to write a cookbook. Even Rachael Ray’s Fast Food Cookbook has meals for 15 minutes. How do you cook and eat meals so fast? How do you make kids survive such a schedule?
Wow Susan, I knew you must had been busy as a super chess GM and a super chess mom, but I did not know you are that busy and only has 4 hours of sleep at night. Thank you for all the work you have done and thank you for taking the time from your busy day to find blogs posted by little girls like me and post them on yours. I am always inspired by you but I am also frightened by how hard it is to become a super chess woman and a super chess mom.
I wish I need only sleep 15 minutes per minute like a Napolean…
Your “Miller Lite” analogy is hilarious!!!! I checked the USCF forums site recently and a guy , BL, was attacking you because of your syntax. I would like to ask those guys what have they done to promote and grow chess???? I guess these people who are so negative are kings, kings of their own world where they are the emperor of a country no one else cares about.
You need a husband like me to take care of you.
While your schedule is amazingly impressive, Susan, it should not be kept at the expense of your health.
I would encourage you to show your sample schedule (particularly the short sleeping time, the rushed meals, and lack of scheduled exercise time) to your doctor!
I think your fans would gladly accept less posts from you on your blog here so you can be more rested and healthy!
Thanks for everything you do for the chess community, Susan, but please don’t forget your health! Your family and the chess world need a healthy Susan!
>>> Anonymous said…
You need a husband like me to take care of you. >>>
This is a good laugh.
Susan
I know, I have lived my life the same way. I remember reading a book on Management. It said to give the job to the person who is the most busy. They are the one who will get the job done. The people who have nothing to do will never get anything done.
I know you are the ONE. Watch the movie Matrix if anyone does not know what that refers to.
Jack be easy on the time to make a meal. The times are approximations. Besides who has time for cooking.
Everyone better accept that Susan is not going to slow down soon.
And Susan never think about slowing down. It is boring going slow. the Fun in life is going full bore all out dynamo.
Please try to give yourself more time to rest. Think of a candle burning at both ends, eventually it will run out quickly. Give yourself time to replenish your body and mind with rest so you may have a long fruitfull life :o)
this explains why you ended up in the hospital from exaustion that time…
And then you have people like David Quinn, Brian Lafferty, Sam Sloan and Hal Bogner giving Susan more grief and wasting more of her time. People like them make me sick. I know little about Lafferty and Quinn. I know a lot about Sloan and Bogner and I don’t trust either of them.
Don’t forget Don Schultz and his game to sink his opponents. He sits back and allows Sloan to do his dirty work to destroy Susan. She has to deal with people like him too.
I’m thankful for everything you do for chess in this country. Don’t worry about shady people like Quinn, Lafferty, Sloan, Marinello or Bogner. You have the support of many of us and we’ll help you fix the USCF.
Susan,
Your husband is missing in that picture. I hope you are still married.
It takes me close to 1 hour to cook for my two girls something as simple as spaghetti with meatballs or macaroni and cheese. I guess another 20-30 min for eating. My wife usually clears the table and would do the dishes while I am checking your blog.
Interesting schedule. Important to be a good mom. Your family give the impression of being well centered. Perhaps politics as well would be too much! Or get a nanny and add a little exercise, even 30 min./day. Of course some men are trouble…especially chess players. (One day Jenny the CB will understand motherhood) Life goes on.
All the best
Anonymous Frank
Susan, I’m thinking you should take a chess Coach for your son. Hmm…. looks paradoxical, you are a GM and a chess coach but I recommend you to get another chess coach.Why?
Because you are becomming very busy. I dont blame Tommy for losing his rating, its natural. But part of his losing rate is you are getting more and more busy.
And after you are elected in USCF, and I believe it will happen, you will have no time to teach him.
I devide chess as 3 groups: as hobby, as learning tools and as professional. If your target is high, and rate counts, I really recommend you this controversial statement “hire a chess coach”, you are too busy to teach a future grandmaster. Compare yourself to your father.
Hope you will be success as a chess Mom.
so heres a question for ¥ou Susan:
With that kind of schedule, running around, cooking, driving, teaching and running a school…
How iwll you find time for USCF issues if you are elected? There is a lot to be done…
Tommy has a few different coaches. The point is he did not want to work on his chess since he won the national. He is now focused again. This is solely his decision
I would have no problem handling the USCF office. I do other things because I do have the time. Obviously I would not commit to the same schedule if I am elected.
Best wishes,
Susan Polgar
http://www.PolgarChess.com
I think all these people who wonder if your are too busy to handle the USCF are funny. Don’t they know that all mothers are adept at multi-tasking. Whether we work outside of the home or volunteer, that’s how we live. Would they rather have an unemployed former cab driver like Sam Sloan on the board?
Holy cow Susan! This schedule is as impressive as it is unhealthy. You need to take better care of yourself. A single mom has few safety nets.
There is an old story (variously Jewish, Ukrainian, Russian…) of a woman wanting a bigger house. The rabbi (or village elder…) prescribes bringing all the farm animals inside for a month. At the end, when the animals go back outside, the house feels spacious!
The same with time-filling work. The only cure is to become absolutely INSANELY busy for a month! Then when it gets back to “normal”, it feels restful!
So it is with missional living. But even there, sometimes we must realize that “bin’oth deshe’ yarbitseini” comes first in Psalm 23. And so to bed.
Susan, this is an insane schedule. Even half of that would grind a person down as it is inevitably going to do to you. I am guessing the reason you are driving yourself so hard is your need to prove yourself. What you need to prove and why you need to prove is beyond me. Maybe your father ingrained you with that need. And maybe you have an oldest child syndrom. Whatever the case, I would suggest therapy, because nobody in the world can live like this for too long. You have children, you have parents and you have sisters, nobody wants to see you be crushed. You need help.
Will the real Susan Polgar please stand up?
I think you are super! You not only did what you can do to ensure that women gets equal footing with men in the game of chess, you also did your best in balancing your career and your family life! I am a male chess player and fortunately for me I am not one of the chauvinist player who thinks women can’t do as well as men. I am not only proud of women, most of whom carry double responsibility of bringing bread home and taking care of family, they really fully deserve my respect. This is what most men should seriously reflect on and not indulging in thought of male superiority.
I realize in Hebrew the invisible “is” in Adonai ro-i, lo echsar (The Lord is my shepherd, I lack not) should often be treated as an active verb. Thus also with Anokhiy Adonai Eloheykha… (I am the Lord your God…), the First Commandment. Hence the next line of Psalm 23 (He makes me lie down…) comes second in the active sense I meant—still before everything else!