OK, Here it Goes....

I may be a little one-sided, or just feeling sorry for myself, but I think that a stay-at-home-mom has more work involved. Let me explain:

1. Being at home all day does not allow you to get ahead of your housework. You can clean, but the kids are right behind you pulling out everything that you just put away. I fold laundry, and they are there pulling it down to the floor to jump on. I cook three meals a day and have to do dishes three times, wash the table three times, and clean the kitchen three times. HOWEVER, I do understand that these things can happen to a mother that goes to work, but at least they aren't happening ALL day long.

2. Stay-at-home Mothers also have more child conversations in a day than anyone else. There are days that we don't even have another adult to talk to until our husbands come home, and sometimes that's too late to count. We do get to hear our children's first words, see their first steps, go to every doctor and dentist visit, take them to their first day of school (and cry), play games and act like big kids. We have no schedule to follow, and we can nap with our babies!

3. The only stress we battle with is the stress that happens in our home. We do not have to learn to leave work at work; we don't lay up at night thinking about the list of deadlines, things that coworkers said or did, hiring or firing. We may worry about finding a babysitter, preschool, doctor or playgroup, but can always change our appointments to meet the schedule dealt to us. HOWEVER, we can NOT call in sick to our job. We still have to get out of bed, make meals, change diapers, and deal with sick kids too. We don't get to do this for nine hours a day either, it's 24-7. We can choose to let things go or dwell on them, and somedays it is harder to forget and forgive than other days--I'm just lucky that I can look a a sweet little face and smile (that would be a little harder to say about coworkers).

I guess that the baseline comes down to: It DOES depend on certain circumstances, but I don't have the sympathy for mothers that work that some would expect. I don't feel that they have it any worse than we moms that choose to stay at home. It's a choice each one of us makes, and we should't go along acting like our lives are worse than any other mother's. A load of laundry can be done in an evening, or on the weekends; dishes can be done after the kids go to bed; the house does not have to be vacuumed everyday (I can't believe I said that one--I do it 3 times some days); and we will not go to jail for letting our kids stay in their pj's all day.

I'm just a bit offended at the statement that was made the other evening, and the sympathy that seemed to be expected from the table full of stay-at-home mothers. The only bit of sympathy that I do have is what they are missing out on. We make sacrafices to raise our children. We don't have the big, brand new house with all of the horns an whistles, or the garages full of brand new vehicles (some of us don't even have garages). We don't eat out every night, go to lunch with the gals daily, and aren't afraid to buy our children macaroni and cheese or ramen noodles (IN BULK) if that is what they want to eat. We just choose to take our blessings in other forms, ones that mean something to us personally. It's our choice and we truely do love every day of it!

I hope that I didn't offend anyone, but I had to state my opinion. One isn't necessarily harder than the other, but sympathy shouldn't be expected from the other either.