My Name is Crissie and I’m a Stay At Home Mom

Have you ever had one of those crazy exhausting days? The kind where you’ve worked your tail off and ran around like a nutter all day? And then when someone asked you what you did that made you soOoooOO tired, well, it kind of all comes out sounding like not very much at all?  I feel like this most days. I am a stay at home mom. You could basically say, that the thing I do that makes me so very exhausted is that I kept my tiny human alive, fed and clean, ( well mostly clean) EVERY HOUR OF EVERY DAY and that I run my home like a rock star.

We all know that stay at home moms get stereotyped, and I am not saying that everyone out there who discovers I am a SAHM pictures me lounge at home all day, in silks, eating bonbons and watching TV. But it seems to me that people who are NOT SAHM want to put us into two categories, and let me just clarify,  I do not fit into the Peggy Bundy mold of wife/motherhood, neither do I fit into the June Cleaver cast. I am my own kind of Stay At Home Mom, but there are some people, who just don’t seem to understand the job I really, truly have.

I mean, a typical day in our home looks a lot like this:

•Dilemma wakes me up via continuous whines of Mom, Mama, and Ma.

•Change, dress and feed the tiny human, then get dressed, make bed, eat my own breakfast.  Wipe smeared breakfast off Dilemma and highchair, (and sometimes off ceiling and carpet).

•Play with toddler for about 2 hours.  This entails some TV time, reading books, going for walks, colouring, word games, etc.

•While my tiny terror is occupied with fun activities, I attempt to clean the house, do laundry, etc.

•Snack time, today’s yummy menu item consisted of “ants on a log” Where only the raisins and cheese were eaten from the celery stick, which were later discovered buried in my house plants.

•Nap time, which is the ONLY nap of the day and lately, (since we sacrificed her binky to the soother Gods) will only happen in my arms.  I spend this hour with a child in one arm and, the other reading books or tweeting from my phone. Sometimes I may even catch up on TV or nap myself…

•Dilemma wakes up.

•Change her diaper.

•Feed her lunch, which mostly gets consumed but some veggies get hidden under the padding of her highchair seat… I don’t know HOW she does it… eat lunch myself.

•Play time for another 2 hours.

•While Dilemma is occupied attempt to get dinner ready and do dishes from lunch and snack time.

•Welcome husband home.

•Set the table; Feed Dilemma, eat my own dinner.

•Tidy up dinner dishes.

•Give Tiny Terror her bath and get her ready for bed.

•Read her a story or two or 15 if she got her way.

•If I don’t fall asleep putting Dilemma to bed, I take a nice shower, have a cup of tea, watch TV, read a book, blog, or pass out attempting to do all or one of these things.

•My own bedtime.

•Repeat tomorrow.

So for those of you who think I sit on my butt all day, I would like you to attempt this average, no hassle day… please note that this is a GOOD day, there were no Doctors appointments for her or for myself, no colds or ear infections, no flues, no tantrums or scrapped knees, no errands to run, no bills to pay. The bare bones of my day…

Clearly the only people who would ask a stay at home mother “what she does all day?” are people who’ve never had children and are ignorant to the HARD WORK this JOB takes. Not only am I am mother, but I’m an alarm clock, a cook, a maid, a house cleaner, a waitress, a teacher, a nurse, a handyman, a security officer, a photographer, a counselor, a chauffeur, an event planner, a personal assistant, an ATM and a Ghostbuster ( Hey I scare away the boogie man.) I don’t get holidays, or sick pay or days off. I am on call 24/7 for the rest of my life and I do it all with pride, love and laughter, (and to tell you the honest truth… maybe a bonbon or two…).