Motherhood sucks
My oldest is 14, I only have 2 kids and I am still on my
first husband. And in a minute you will see why it is nice that he is still
putting up with me. Husband is in the military so we move every few years and
it was hard to find career worthy jobs – I decided to stay home and call that
my job. Well it was way too thankless.
At work you get paid, and the boss doesn’t care what you do
with that money. As a SAHM you are expected to keep everyone happy while
figuring out how to save money to prove that you have contributed to the
family. For me that meant I didn’t buy myself things like new clothes, or get my
hair done. A job offers accolades when you do well, at home you can never
please everyone. When a project is finished at the office you celebrate and
review what went well and how to improve the next project. When dinner is
finished there is no thank you and as a prize I get to do the dishes. There
will be more dishes in 2 hours after everyone has dessert, so I guess that ‘project’
is never done.
To add insult to injury while dinner and then dishes are
being done the rest of the family does as they please – watch TV, play on
computers, enjoy their free time. This year I have decided to do as I please
and to force the rest of the family into working. It was hard. When they
complained I wanted to jump in and take over, but I believed that my movie
watching was just as important as their free time so I kept my ass on that
couch!! When guilt over the mess in the kitchen started to upset my stomach, I
walked to the living room and checked into Facebook. My time and effort have
paid off; I think I found some new hobbies. The fact that they really can do
house work shows me that I can get a job, and it won’t lead to social services visiting
my home.
Best of all, I am not caught up in getting stuff done so
that I actually stop and spend time really listening to my kids instead of
multitasking my way through a conversation. I still don’t get many thank yous,
and the place is a little out of control sometimes – but it is worth it to have
a life. Maybe motherhood isn’t too bad, maybe I was just doing it wrong. Shhh
don’t tell my husband.
