I must put a confession in here that I was a working mom who thought stay at home moms had it easy so easy, but very quickly realized stay at home moms work harder than anyone. Much respect now that I'm wearing the stay at home mom shoes! The job pays good with kisses and the benefits to my kids are excellent but it is a twenty-four-seven job that gives no sick leave, vacation, or security of knowing what your job description will be since it is written and rewritten everyday.
Here is a short list of my experience:
-Never wear black... wait... never wear white... Wait... Umm just NEVER wear nice clothes because no matter the color you will go around all day getting so dirty by the end of the day it is hard to tell what color you are wearing! For example, it isn't just the milk the baby spits up on you it is the jelly from lunch too plus chalk from sidewalk coloring oh and the snot from an allergy nose ... you get the picture!
-If it is quite run call 911 because it is an emergency! Your toilet is filled to the brim with something like toilet paper plus the bathroom hand towel and/or a magazine. You go to change the babies diaper things get quite your 3 year old has made a 5 ft tower from cushions and proceeds to climb it and jump onto your hardwood floors almost hitting his head on the ceiling fan blades!
-Do not sit down it is counter productive because as soon as you do someone needs something, has to go to the bathroom, starts crying, wants food, and/or wakes up from sleeping. Just stand at all times!
-If your children wouldn't nap during designated nap time mentally prepare for all out war, tears over everything, and don't forget to feed them dinner early so they hopefully get a little full to go to bed early :-) right!!!
-Have several changes of clothes for the kids because one or two sets will need to be washed within the first few hours of the day
-If you have something nice lock it in a safe till the kids are in college and never buy nice things just hold off till later in life when you might keep it nice for a few minutes
-If you want a clean house shell out the money for a clean house just again get mentally prepared that in 1 hour or less after the cleaning service leaves things are back to disaster zone so just realize it is materialistic so it is not important
-Take showers at 3am or an insane hour when the kids finally go to sleep so you can be clean for a few hours till they wake up
-To get anything accomplished during the day other than feeding the kids, dressing the kids, redressing the kids, getting the kids down for nap, and doing several activities with the kids you MUST plan it. For example Monday can be dusting the house and cleaning the floors day, Tuesday can be grocery day, and so on but just realize that some days maybe no day will work out as planned.
-Meltdowns will happen and might happen often just remember to stay calm the room will feed off of anger or fear so stand your ground change the subject and learn to read a potential meltdown and avoid it next time if possible
-remember you are human some days you will feel like you have damaged your kids beyond repair or you are the worst mother in the world or you are frazzled too much and need a timeout yourself
-recharge your batteries which is easier said than done I am not good at doing this at all (ok never really) but I'm learning it is important to get out as an adult sometimes wear nice clothes and discuss something other than mickey mouse adventures - like I said I know this is important just hard to plan all the logistics plus actually walk out the door without guilt
I could go on and on about the things I've learned and I am still learning more everyday. I would NEVER trade this time for anything and I know I am going to be incredibly sad when the house is clean and quite because the kids are gone to college. I also know that I feel more like myself with my kids because they bring out the best me! All in all it is the hardest job but the BEST job I've had or will ever have in my life! I am very grateful that I can be a stay at home Mother!
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