People always ask, “when do you plan on going back to work?” Um, as if being a stay-at-home parent wasn’t work! People don’t see raising a child as work and I totally understand because I use to be one of those people. What’s so hard about staying home with someone you love? Well there’s plenty to the job description then just “staying home.”
I miss the days I’d get to sleep in with no worries, but obviously that’s changed. I get up when Ziana decides to wake me up, I feed her when she wants to be fed, I play with her when she allows me to, I bath her, cloth her, change her, and entertain her. That’s it, right? Oh no, let’s not forget the “home” we stay at. Not only do we have to take care of the kid/s we have to keep up the home such as cleaning it, making dinner, paying the bills on time, organizing everyone’s schedules and appointments, run errands for the family and so on aka I’m the administrator of this B*#%H!
All things can be done quickly! NOT! Constant sweeping and steam mopping the house is essential. Your kids crawl and touch everything then put their hands in their mouth. No matter how clean you think you cleaned it’s not enough and it’ll get dirty within a day.
Deciding what to cook is a task too. What are you in the mood for? What time should you start to prepare and cook the food? Do you have everything you need to cook? If not you have to go out and buy it WITH the kid/s. There goes another task– what to bring with you that the child will need JUST IN CASE.
We do part-time in finance too. You need to know what money is coming in and out of your household. Is there enough to pay the bills today or can you wait till next week? Sometimes people don’t use a checking book they don’t know where the money goes and then are surprised when there’s no money for something.
While doing half of our “job” we need to take care of the other half of our job– taking care of the kid/s; meals, naps, play time, changing diapers/clothes, dealing with crying, crankiness and too much more to list. The most important is feeding your child with knowledge! And with me teaching her who knows what life skills she’s going to come out learning, haha.
It’s a balancing act between the kid and household chores I could’ve joined the circus. One needs to learn how to multi-task and it’s not always so easy for some people and that’s stressful.
I don’t take what my boyfriend does for granted, I know he works hard and endures stress along the day, but sometimes he doesn’t understand that “my job” is 24/7. It doesn’t entail breaks at certain times (unless she’s sleeping), I don’t socialize with people on the regular, I’m exhausted and doing it all day gets to you.
Ones significant other needs to take into consideration that we “stay-at-home” moms do a lot more than just stay home. We need a break! And a break to us is changing the last diaper before bed, cleaning the bottles or giving her a bath. Take what we do into consideration and we’ll learn to take what you do into consideration.
I’m not complaining nor asking for sympathy because that smile you see up there and the happiness she brings me makes me love my job. It’s what I lived for all my life– a family and unconditional love from a mini-me.
No Comments