What a Mommy Does All Day

I had to share this.  A woman wrote into an advice column asking what stay at home moms do all day because she thought her friend just used her kid as an excuse to relax at home.  Can you say "Are you kidding me???"  I loved the advice columnist's response and had to share it because it is spot on:

"When you have young kids, your typical day is: constant attention, from getting them out of bed, fed, clean, dressed; to keeping them out of harm's way; to answering their coos, cries, questions; to having two arms and carrying one kid, one set of car keys, and supplies for even the quickest trips, including the latest-to-be-declared-essential piece of molded plastic gear; to keeping them from unshelving books at the library; to enforcing rest times; to staying one step ahead of them lest they get too hungry, tired or bored, any one of which produces the kind of checkout-line screaming that gets the checkout line shaking its head.

It's needing 45 minutes to do what takes others 15.

It's constant vigilance, constant touch, constant use of your voice, constant relegation of your needs to the second tier.

It's constant scrutiny and second-guessing from family and friends, well-meaning and otherwise. It's resisting constant temptation to seek short-term relief at everyone's long-term expense

It's doing all this while concurrently teaching virtually everything -- language, manners, safety, resourcefulness, discipline, curiosity, creativity. Empathy. Everything.

It's also a choice, yes. And a joy. But if you spent all day, every day, with this brand of joy, and then, when you got your first 10 minutes to yourself, wanted to be alone with your thoughts instead of calling a good friend, a good friend wouldn't judge you, complain about you to mutual friends, or marvel how much more productively she uses her time. Either make a sincere effort to understand or keep your snit to yourself."

 The columnist did such a good job relating exactly what I do with Alexis.  Pretty much, I don't get time to myself.  I'm not technically a stay-at-home-mom because I do work out of the home "part time" (my part time teaching job keeps me as busy as a full time teaching job).  So even when Alexis is napping, I am spending that precious time lesson planning.  I haven't read a whole book in months (I'm slowly working on one chapter by chapter or page by page as the case may be).  I manage to get in one TV show I really like a week (when I can keep Alexis distracted for 45 minutes with an activity).  I have been working on a book for three years and it has been relegated to the summer when I hope I can complete it.  I also have a stocking I want to finish cross-stitching that has been relegated to summer.  All that to say, moments to myself to enjoy my hobbies are few and far between.

Does that mean I would trade away my daughter for that time?  Nope.  I love being a mommy.  I love the time I get to hug her, cuddle her and play with her.  And yet, it is a lot sometimes, especially on a toddler day that is full of whining and crying.  We moms do quite a lot at home.  Hopefully, most of us do it out of the unconditional love we have for our children.  And hopefully us Christian moms also do it because we know we want to show God's love to our kids.  God doesn't take a day off.  He's always there for his kids.  And so are we.  What do I do all day?  I show God's love in action to my daughter and that fills my day to the brim :-D