Being Mrs. Mom

Being a stay at home mom, I've found that there are some people who think I do nothing all day every day.  On occasion (usually when he's just frustrated with the whole world), even Donald thinks that, until he gets a reminder of how "easy" it is.  There is a lot to being a SAHM.

Ideally, every day goes very smoothly, and I get everything that I want and need to get done in a day: breakfast, baby nap, unload/load the dishwasher, laundry, play with kiddos, vacuum, dust, pick up and put away toys & books, bottle, lunch, naps, bottle, another nap for baby, a good supper (I'm talking meat & taters kind of meal), another bottle, jammies, and straight to bed.  Yeah, um... that's not reality in this house.

On a good morning, Mater and I get the dishwasher unloaded/loaded and maybe a minute amount of cleaning done, in addition to the necessities (bottles, diapers, etc.).  Abut once a month I get so fed up with the mess I call my home that I do some "deep" cleaning.  By deep cleaning I mean vacuum all the carpet a little, give Mater the duster, sweep up the rocks and grass on the vinyl floors, and use the Swiffer to clean the floors real quick.  In my defense, the housework will always be there tomorrow because most days I have something more important to do besides cleaning.

So, what's more important than cleaning, you ask?  My kiddos.  Mater and I will watch Curious George and/or movies together (Peter Pan, Ratatouille, etc.), and I LOVE to watch with him; I love his reactions.  We read books and color.  We wrestle around on the floor and tickle each other.  Until recently, we were busy trying to teach Dorothy how to crawl, in between the three naps that she takes in a day.  I'm also busy just cleaning up the messes that my kids make, whether it's spit up on the carpet from the baby or baby powder that the 2-year old found and dumped all over the room.  Yes, spit up... my baby girl is constantly spitting up, so I'm always thinking about that and doing what I have to do to keep her urping to a minimum.

At 1:00 PM, it is naptime for BOTH my babies.  Ah... beloved naptime; the only break Mommy gets is when her babies are sleeping.  When both are taking naps, I plug my headphones in and play my Sims so that I don't wake up the baby girl because her bed (actually it's a pack 'n play because there's no room for her crib in our bedroom right now) is right next to my computer.  There's not much else I can do during naptime because it will just wake up one or both kids.  I think I mentioned that we currently live in a 4-room house, so Mater's room is right off the kitchen & living room; I can't even make supper when he's napping, unless I am willing to wake him up, and I am NEVER willing to wake up my babies.  I follow the "let sleeping babies lay" rule.  Have you ever heard the song "Mr. Mom" by Lonestar?  If not, check out the video at the end of the post.  That's my day, every day, in a nutshell.

Since I became a SAHM, I've always felt that I needed to prove that I did something and was productive each day, to my husband and myself, but honestly, I realized yesterday (after reading this article) that I don't have anything to prove because being a stay at home mom is a luxury for my husband.  Donald doesn't have to worry about who will take care of the kids when their sick, because I am always here to do so.  I do 99% of the laundry, dishes, cleaning, and cooking around here, so he doesn't have to do much of it.  We are the ones raising our kids, not somebody else.  I, a parent, make the majority of the every day decisions in regards to our children, and Donald trusts that I will do my best to make the right decision.  With me being a SAHM, our kids get the kind of care and love that we want them to get; mommy's care and love.

It seems to me that since the women's rights movement, society acts like being a SAHM is a bad thing.  Society makes it harder to be a SAHM.  What is so bad about being a SAHM?  I LOVE it!  I liked the job I had before and felt that I was good at it (until I got pregnant with Dorothy and completely "lost" my brain), but I think I'm better at this, being a mom.  I love the whole old fashioned idea of being a Miss Susie Homemaker.  What's wrong with that?  Do you think I don't have goals or have nothing to contribute to society or something?  Let me tell you, I have plenty of goals.  I want to raise God-loving, moral people who will make the world a better place just by being the best person they can be.  I want to have a house full of grandchildren.  I want to spend as much time with my family as possible.  (break time: dancing with kiddos to "The Hampsterdance Song") I know that they will make mistakes; I want them to make mistakes, and I want them to learn from those mistakes.  I want to give my kids the tools they need to explore and learn things for themselves.  These are a few goals, and notice that I do have something to contribute to society, my children.

Friday Night

So, I'm old (I think), or am I?  As I write this, many people my age (or younger) are out partying it up, drinking, and having what they refer to as "a good time" (I completely skipped that phase of my life and jumped right into marriage and family) so that tomorrow they can puke there guts out and remain completely worthless all day just so that they can do it all again that night and puke again the next morning (why?).  Meanwhile, I'm at home with my family.
Tonight was just another Friday night in our house; actually it really started out not any different from any other night.  While the baby is on her third nap, the 2-year old wakes up from his nap, but this time he's ever crabbier than he was before he took his nap.  Since he was finally awake, I could start making supper without having to worry about waking him up, because it was almost time to start the supper making process, but I couldn't....  He was WAAAY too mad at the world to let me even attempt to make supper (let's also not forget that he's been sick for a week).  We popped in "Peter Pan" (I don't know what we'll do if the DVD wears out on us).  And finally, it was actually time to attempt making supper (NOTE: my husband was unavailable as a distractor because he was working on our other house).

Now, I'm just assuming that since you are reading a blog about anything and everything related to children then you are either a parent or someone who works with children frequently (teacher, daycare, etc.).  So, you more than likely know how difficult it is to cook with a happy toddler let alone a grumpy toddler.  Well, long story short, we survived it and averted as many toddler crisis' as possible.

Skipping an unimportant part of the story... my baby started to basically crawl across the floor.  I was SO excited!  She did half crawl and half army crawled, but none the less, she crawled!  About 8 feet!  I was excited!  Mater was excited and helped me coax her into crawling!  We videotaped it, and we even called Daddy to tell him.

I looked up a music video for Lonestar's "Mr. Mom."  I hadn't heard that song in ages, so Mater and I sung and dance to that followed my some Elmo on IHeartRadio.  Then, when Daddy got home, we looked up some good 'ol fashioned twangy country music (Johnny Cash), because Daddy didn't like "Twinkle Twinkle."  The night ended with a family dance party in the living room with Johnny Cash.  It was great!  Fun was had by all.  Even little miss had fun; she watched us dance from the comfort of her Jumperoo and showed Daddy her newfound crawling skills (fyi she is a FAST little turkey).

Now, I am sitting here at 8:51 PM where.  Everybody in the house is sleeping, except for Mommy.  I'm just left with my thoughts and all the love I feel for my family.  I feel like the luckiest woman in the world because I get to spend my Friday nights with these three wonderful people whom I adore more than words can express.  I would be nothing without them.  They make me whole. (Maybe I'll go play some "Sims 2" for a little bit before bed.)