A full time job

Being a SAHM (stay-at-home mom) is a full time job. Actually, it's more than full time since your day does not begin at 9 am and certainly does not end at 5. This is a job that knows no time restraints. (As has been requested I will soon post up an outline of a "typical" day, although in all honesty such a thing does not truly exist.) These last few months staying at home with Morgan has made me appreciate and admire mothers everywhere.

(Sorry for all the crap I gave you when I was younger, Mom!)

When Jim and I first discussed getting pregnant and having a baby we agreed that I would stay home and take care of him/her. I had all the time in the world to come to this conclusion since it took us over a year to get pregnant. I knew that as much as I loved working on my degree and as much as I loved teaching, I was not going to be happy if I left my baby to someone else to mind for the day, even if that someone else was her father. Don't get me wrong, I have the utmost respect for working moms too, I just didn't think it would work for me. I debated for awhile, before Miss MJ was born, about finding a job teaching online courses. I even went so far as to apply for a position or two. That was before November. That was when I still thought that babies slept for large portions off the day and I'd have time to do work and take care of her. My Munchkin's arrival into this world changed all that.

If you have read any of my previous posts you will realize that MJ does not like to sleep. From the day after her birth everyone who saw her said, “Wow, she's so alert!” Little did I know then that what those words in fact meant were, “My god, you're going to have your hands full!” Morgan seems convinced that if she sleeps, even for a mere ten minutes, in the middle of the day she will miss out on something important so she does her damnedest to stay awake, at all costs... to both her and me. I laugh now when I think back on the naivete' that led me to believe that I could work at home and dedicate as much time to MJ as is required or desired by either of us.

Mothering is a full time job. full stop.