For All Of the Stay At Home Mom’s
The pressure of being a stay at home mom is huge! We are responsible for many things, such as our children's safety, making sure they are always keep clear from choking hazards or injuring themselves climbing too high in a tree. We are responsible for their behavior and becoming a good person, having manors, being kind to their siblings and other people. We are responsible for their learning, both before they enter kindergarten and through high school providing help with homework. This just scratches the surface of our jobs as stay at home moms.
The pressure isn't just from raising our kids the way we need to, but also bearing the weight of not bringing in a full time salary. Many of us SAHM's have a side job to help provide, but our incomes rarely even reach that of a part time minimum wage job. As our spouses bring in the big guns and take care of all the financial responsibilities, that leaves us moms feeling guilty and sometimes even inadequate. Many women feel the burden of this, but are ashamed to admit it. Many of us want to feel strong and push through the bad feelings of guilt or inadequacy. However, if we want things to change in this world, and for everyone to see us as equals, we need to admit we feel this way and speak up! A typical day for SAHM's can look drastically different in every home. While the schedule may be different, what we all do is very similar.
Morning time:
We attempt giving our children the healthiest breakfast we can, figuring out different ways to make healthier food look more appealing. We get them dressed, which may seem like a easy task to many, but I promise you getting a squirmy baby or a grumpy toddler in clean clothes can be quite the task.
Mid-day:
You can find us cleaning the house, typically with disinfectants because our children are just nasty sometimes. We might be finding a good recipe to make for dinner for the whole family, something that appeals to everyone's appetite but also isn't a huge dent in the budget. We are cuddling our kids, rolling around on the floor with them, chasing them all over the house, or playing silly games like duck duck goose. We even get out a thousand little things for them to make crafts, even though we know all too well that glue and glitter will end up making a giant mess on both them and the table. We take them out to the park and inevitably when they hurt themselves, we are bandaging them up and giving all the hugs and kisses for comfort. We are doing several loads of laundry a day to keep up with their constant outfit changes, because of course they either spill something on their shirt or decide they wanna dress up and play different characters throughout the day. We are teaching them life lessons, even if we don't believe they are ever listening. I mean, do they ever??
Night time:
It's time for dinner and bed time routines. Time to cook our new meals that we found and then cleaning it up off the floor when baby throws it down due to her disappointment that it's not Oreos. We get them dressed once again and battle the bedtime routine, because they need a billion things when they should be going to sleep.
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Do all working moms and dads help with the morning and nighttime routine? Absolutely, but the amount just depends on when they have to go into work and when they are able to get home. I'm not downplaying what all those who work do, because that's equally tough! My point is that moms who are home all day with their kids are freaking amazing too! Despite not getting paid, our jobs are incredibly important! We are busy and we should not be ashamed for not making money. If we are able to make any amount of money whilst being an attentive mom, we should be dang proud! We should feel important and equal to those who bring in the money.
Our jobs cannot be abandoned, we cannot go on strike, nor are we able to take sick days. We roll up our sleeves and continue shelling out all the love that we have. WE are stay at home moms! And we deserve love and respect!
