I feel a great need to give a disclaimer at the beginning of this post. I have a real heart for the working mother. Whether she has to work or chooses to work, the working mom occasionally finds herself sitting at her desk wondering what her baby is doing at that very moment with the caregiver, while she’s sitting there taking care of business. I spent over a decade working in IT and two of those years were as a working mom. I’ve been there. I’ve dreaded Sunday nights tucking the baby into bed, wishing I could rewind back to Friday afternoon. I know that feeling well.
The transition to stay home has been good, but it also still feels strange and unfamiliar. I feel like a working mom going undercover as a stay home mom, like I’m just playing hooky from my real job. I’ve been trying to pinpoint what it is that’s so foreign. Here’s what I’ve come up with:
ONE: I realized last week that in a span of 7 days, the only time I had been away from my children was on Sunday while they were in the church nursery and the daily hour I spent at Pure Barre. At 6 AM, no less. That’s definitely not a complaint. They might be more tired of me than I am of them. Truly.
TWO: I could clean my house all day long. I mean allllll dayyyy lonnnng. Except for toys, I like my house to be spotless. Even if I had a maid service, there is always something I could be doing/de-cluttering/organizing. I finally set myself an alarm for 1 PM last week and decided that I would do no chores beyond the necessities after that time.
THREE: Like I mentioned in a previous post, I wear more play clothes than I did before. That feels weird.
FOUR: On days that I don’t meet up with other moms and kids for something, I talk my husband’s ear off in the evening. About anything. Usually it’s a running commentary on everything I cleaned and a play-by-play of everything the children and I did that day. Riveting.
FIVE: We just went on vacation with our kids. Since I don’t head off to an office each day anymore, my everyday actually feels like a vacation, so it was weird to take a vacation from the vacation.
Please don’t get me wrong! I’m loving being at home with my kids and feel so blessed to have the opportunity. I just wonder: at what point will I no longer feel like I’m on vacation from work?
Any other moms moved from the working mom to the stay at home mom? What surprised you most?
I am in awe that you can find time to clean the house – my two make it IMPOSSIBLE!
After being a SAHM for over 3 1/2 years, I have the opposite feeling of vacation…I LOVE being with my children, wouldn’t have it any other way, but everyday doesn’t feel like vacation, and vacation this year felt like work! 🙂
We recently decided that I will be staying home with our 17mo old son. It will be a challenge doing this while being new to an area- who do I hang out with?!? 🙂
I do have a question: was there a budget you and your husband decided on to spend on activities, toys, treats, etc?
Hi Makenzie! Welcome to the DFW area! While I don’t have the challenges of relocating and not knowing many folks around me, a lot of my close friends are working moms and not available during the day, so I understand where you’re coming from!
I’m excited because FWMB will be having playdates, moms’ nights out, and other fun events, so stay tuned here for announcements on those. It should be a fun and great way to meet other moms!
For your question: we totally have a weekly budget (I work best that way) for groceries and “fun” is separate from that. We worked our way backwards to see how much “fun” we can have. 😉
Kenz – what area of town do you live in? We are working on getting some playdates and want to make sure we are hitting all the areas!
We’re up in Grapevine for now!