Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Stay at Home Moms

I haven't worked since I was seven months pregnant with Ansley. Ryan works a crazy schedule and I'm not real keen on leaving my kids with anyone. As I mentioned before, I don't have any real skills so we decided I'd stay home to care for our trophies. It cracks me up the things people will ask me to do for them "because I don't work."

I wonder, do all stay at home moms get this treatment? I get asked if I will keep people's kids while they work a full time job. I'm like, do you even know me? I don't just love kids. I love my kids but that is pretty much it. I can understand asking me this once but I make it very clear that I am not interested and they continue to ask. I chose to stay home to raise my kids, not yours.

I've been called last minute to see if I could just swing by and decorate for a birthday party. I've also been called and the person will say, "so and so just had a baby,  and how they would just love to be able to take a meal over but they work...so could I do it for them?" I'm thinking my kids will be lucky if they get some Ramen thrown at them and you think I have enough groceries in my house to whip up a nice meal for someone in a few hours?! Don't get me wrong, I will help someone in need. I just don't appreciate people "suggesting" what I should do.

I recently had an older lady that lives with her son's family, ask me if I would teach her to drive! What? Are you serious? What does that even mean? I'm just standing there like a deer in headlights with all these thoughts racing through my mind. Have you had a nervous breakdown and your family doesn't want you to have a license? Why are you asking me and not them? Oh yeah, I don't work and they do. Whose insurance would cover you if you crashed my car? What would Ryan say? How do you even respond to such a request? That's when I remembered I'm late to pick up a kid from school and leave abruptly.

It has even been suggested that maybe I shouldn't be such a fat butt because I'm a SAHM. I suppose I could spend countless hours at the gym, you know because I don't have anything better to do. I'll admit I really should get back in the gym. I keep telling myself I'll get back. I'm taking baby steps right now. I recently started getting up in the morning and putting my workout clothes on. I'm trying to build up to driving to the gym, if I could only make it inside...but that's a whole other issue.

What blows my mind more than anything is the requests are almost always prefaced with, "I know you don't work" or "since you stay home..."

To clear up any doubt SAHM's don't really just stay at home and twiddle their thumbs all day! Obviously, I have time to blog and fb with the occasional Pinterest thrown in. I try to watch as much television as possible and nap, oh the naps. Seriously though, when I worked I probably thought the same thing. I remember ditching work  having the day off and going to the mall and seeing all the other moms there pushing their little strollers around and I just thought they had it made! Staying home and working moms both have their own perks. I think SAHM's just volunteer for more things and we do "work" we just don't get paid for what we do.

So, if you are a stay at home mom, have you ever been asked to do something because "I know you don't work?"

If you're a working mom, what's your take on the subject?

I've been both and I really thought working a full time job was easier. However, that was with one child and I was much younger. Now, I see moms that work with multiple children and I seriously wonder how they do all they do. Maybe that's why they ask me to drop off their dry cleaning.




4 comments:

  1. When I was a stay at home mom I always had stray children...always got drafted to be room mom or team mom, etc... I used to refer to it as being a "stay in the car mom" instead of a stay at home mom because I was always in the car picking up or dropping off half the neighborhood. It's much more fun being a disabled person with grown kids... anytime you get off your butt and do anything, people act like you just invented chocolate or something and you always get the best parking places.

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    1. OMGosh Heather, you nailed it! I may have to steal that! I have my kids in different schools, one is in public and one in private. I was in the car 3 hrs a day just dropping off and picking up. I put ChaChi on the bus in the afternoons so that saves me about 30 mins.

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  2. I was lucky the first year up here I was a stay at home Mom and since I didn't know anyone... that is exactly what I did... stayed at home, mind you I probably had the cleanest place in the county! I do miss having time for "My Schedule" on the other hand, I love working with all these creative passionate people, you can't help but feel smarter! LOL!

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    1. I swear the day flies by! I feel like I'm never at home! My house gets out of control sometimes and it drives me crazy! I can only imagine what it would look like if I had a job!

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