Blog That Mommy Intro - June 13, 2006

I am vehemently against the term "stay-at-home" mom. Aren't all moms work-at-home moms? I have yet to meet a woman who stays at home with her children who doesn't do so much work during the day that she is completely and utterly exhausted by the time evening rolls around.

Let's see, in an average day, I will (try to) get up before my children, take a shower, make coffee, start laundry, do my exercise workout, and work on my Web editing before the kids roll out of bed. Then, I make breakfast, change diapers and dress children. On an "easy" day when we don't have to go anywhere, the kids will work on getting out every toy in the house while I attempt to fold laundry, clean the kitchen, sweep, vacuum or clean the bathrooms. Usually, I am able to subdue my 4-year-old son, Eli, for a little while with a DVD of Caillou, Barney or The Wiggles, but that's about the only reprieve I get. Georgia, my 1-year-old daughter, still naps, thank God, but sometimes it's extremely difficult to put her down with Eli squealing that everything is "super-dee-dooper" - his newest catch phrase from Barney - a video I get close to torching each day.

Amid all the chaos, I do freelance writing and editing from home. When I had one child who was an infant and a growing business, things were on the upswing professionally. Now that I have two very mobile and active children, I don't have much time to build a business. If I manage to get a free hour during the day, sleep takes a very large precedence over work.

The Mommy Blog is really my online diary and bitchfest, so I can get everything out. This is quite therapeutic and saves me from having to get a Paxil subscription.

Don't get me wrong. I love my children more than anything on God's green earth, and I do love staying and working at home with them. All I'm saying is that I think all mothers need a little acknowledgement sometimes. I have a friend with a newborn who is quite colicky. Her husband doesn't get up with him during the night because he has to go to "work" the next day. I'm sorry, but the last time I worked outside the home, I have a vague memory of sitting down at a desk and working without small children running around at my feet and having to stop every two minutes to referee fights. Isn't that called a "break"? But yet, I suppose men do need to rest up to go into those relaxing jobs every day. Women are up half the night with their children because they don't have to go to "work," right? Don't even get me started. One thing I have discovered is that it is amazing what the female body can do with absolutely no sleep. All of the moms I know can be up all night with a teething baby, and then do housework, cook dinner and run a marathon on no sleep. In fact, that's what we do most days, and we smell good and look pretty while we're doing it.

Well, that's enough of a bitch session to get this blog going. I have many adventures going on this summer with myself and my children - so there will be a lot to say.