I Am Thankful I’m a Full Time Mom

Today Sabrina woke up with a tummy ache and so we’ve been taking it easy this morning.  I am so glad that I am able to stay home and take care of her. I like being available if the kids need me to bring something they forgot at school.  I love being in their classrooms to help out. I love seeing the little girls play together and being here to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (just peanut butter for Emma, just jelly for Hannah, pb & j for Hunter and Sabrina). I’ve heard people say “you’re so lucky you can stay home.” But as every stay at home mom knows, it’s not always about if you can, it’s about making it work.  Of course there are exceptions. I have friends that work part time, or are single parents and have to work an outside job in addition to their mothering responsibilities. I can’t imagine how difficult it would be to walk in their shoes.

I like to describe myself as a full time mom because there are still “career” related duties: deadlines, an overflowing “Inbox,” unexpected problems to solve, employee sibling squabbles, heavy lifting, customers friends and family with needs, monotony… But there are no scheduled breaks, limited adult conversation and/or interaction,  little verbal appreciation (and most of it is forced, “Will you try again asking nicely?”), and not many chances to see the work you’ve completed, stay completed. In spite of the craziness and sometimes stressfulness, I still feel lucky to be a full time Mom to these four beautiful babies.