Don’t Sleep Walk Through Life – Live It!

In today’s current economic climate, it is almost always necessary for families to have two incomes. Over the past two years, there has been a steady increase in the number of working women. This has forced more and more women to face a very real problem – there are only 24 hours in a day and none of us have a clone. As women’s issues go, dealing with the stress and workload of being a working mom doesn’t often get press, but it should. Today’s working moms are putting in more hours than ever before as they attempt to balance their home life, their work life, their children, and their spouses.

As mom’s, to some extent, we must do it all. Going back to work after we have children does little to change this attitude. If anything, it only makes it worse. We still want to prepare meals, go to soccer practice, and spend quality time with our spouses, but as our days get stretched thinner and thinner, we often are left wondering just how much sleep we actually must have.

Before you get to the point where you want to tear your husband’s leg hair out, you should take a few minutes to step back and reconsider. What things are you doing that could delegate? How often do you find yourself going behind your spouse when he has tried to help with the chores? Are there things that you can give up doing? You may find that be readjusting your priorities you can place yourself to live life instead of sleepwalk through it.

Stay-at-Home does not Equal Bonbons

There’s a common assumption, by those who don’t know better, that stay-at-home moms do nothing but eat bonbons and watch soap operas every day. These assumptions could not be more wrong. A stay-at-home mom works 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for wages that are, more often than not, doled out in stale cheerios and boogers. She is both mother and wife, and also equal parts nurse, chauffeur, chef, vacuum cleaner, dog-walker, and washing machine. She may not have seen a tube of lipstick in three years, or worn high heels since her eldest was born. Her house isn’t spotless, despite her best efforts, ad sometimes dinner consists of a half-eaten pop-tart.

It is vitally important for society to value the stay-at-home mom, and not denigrate her position solely because she receives no paycheck.  Her role is very important, but often she sttruggles to feel fulfilled.  Some days she wants to scream from the rooftop, just to know that, in fact, someone hears her.
Some days she doesn’t like her job, and she’s often times afraid to admit it. Those days are the ones she needs support the most, when she needs to be reassured that what she does matters, and that her job, though without paycheck, is not without satisfaction and value.

The cliche says that children are the future, and indeed it is true.  Stay-at-home moms battle down in the trenches, fighting nightmares, homework struggles, bullies.  They often forego showers in favor of rocking screaming babies.  They are those women who need the most love and support, and society must understand that stay-at-home and do-nothing are not the same.