1.12.2013

Stay At Home Mom

My friend shared this recently, perhaps you've seen it?  I must say, I loved it.  I was surprised by the woman asking the question.  Her whole, "I work long hours and get everything (and more) done and still have time to make social calls, so why can't she?".  I DIED when she said that kids are an excuse to relax and enjoy.  WTF?  "What do stay at home moms do all day?"  Hmm, what did I do today?  Oh, kept 3 little people alive, that's what I did.   I like where the columnist noted that motherhood is needing 45 minutes to do what takes others 15.  My friend Amelia and I always say, "Everything takes 2 hours".   Just getting everyone ready and out the door to run some simple errands takes forever.

In the olden days (before I had 3 children) I could leave whenever I wanted, I could watch an entire movie uninterrupted, I could even spend a whole day cleaning my house singing as loud as I wanted.  Remember when you could take your time getting ready?  Or nap?  Or just shower or go to the bathroom in peace?  What about talking on the phone without suddenly every little human in your home needing your attention thatverysecond?

Those days are gone, friends.

But that doesn't mean that my world is filled with chaos and frazzlement.  Well, sometimes it does, but you adjust and shift things around get into your own system of doing things.  Being a mom is hard and crazy and frustrating and rewarding and joyful and wonderful and the worst and best thing in the world.  I'm far from perfecting this (which is made very clear to me when I see other mom's wearing lip gloss at the grocery store with their 5 clean children), but hey...everything takes two hours.

3 comments:

Amelia Merritt said...

Now that they are older it is SOOOOOO much easier. I can actually listen to music and make dinner and have a few fun hours relatively chaos free. It gets better I promise. But yeah, everything still takes two hours.

Tayva said...

That was an AMAZING article: one of the most concise descriptions of motherhood I have ever read. Kudos to you and to all young mothers who hang in there every day. Someday (as an old person like me) you can point to each of your wonderful, wonderful children with pure happiness. Love to you! From your Stay-at-home Mommy

Rosey said...

Listen you should talk Miss lip gloss and heels anytime you step outside! You're perfect! But now that I have a little one at home I get the 2 hours thing. And now finding time to take a shower can be quite the task... worth it obviously cause these babies are the coolest, funnest, most rewarding things EVER! Love you!!