What do SAHM do all day??? from DCUM, 02/15/07

From DCUM in response to the question: What do Stay at Home Moms DO all day?
Friday, February 15, 2007

I make lists of the projects I will do when my kids go to school. I referee epic battles. I take a zillion pictures and print none of them. We go out everyday to somewhere - and scour our-kids and gocitykids over a hot cup of coffee each morning that the boys are not in preschool. I make "practice runs" to places like the grocery store and buy only an item or two.

I remember how much we wanted children and how long it took us and how much it "cost" us in emotional energy and money - and all the shots in the ass and the dr.'s appointments. I pass out my "mommy business card" to anyone who will take it - and urge them to get connected with other moms. We go to the car wash, whether it needs it or not. We look for construction sites and hang out there. We visit the fire stations, each and every one in the county... We look for emergency drills being conducted by the county and hang out there, too.

I clean house and tidy-up with my helpers. We all have spray bottles and rags and we have a couple of vacuums and unbreakable (almost) plates. I throw dinner in the crock pot with my helpers. I go to the appliance store and get giant card board boxes and bring them home to the living room for as long as they last. I talk to my mommy gal pals on the phone while the kids are napping - and read dcum and mona and the other 1/2 dozen list serves that deluge me. I run my two roombas over and over again. I hide in the bathroom and pretend I can't hear what's going on elsewhere in the house. I read them a dozen books (or two) and cuddle with them at every opportunity. I "fix" things using scotch tape and batteries.

I worry about my kids' education and how to combat the negative influences that will impact them. I ponder what it would be like not to be home and feel grateful that I am. I remember my career and don't miss it. I remember be trim and fit and do miss it.

Knowing this special time before "real" school, and soccer practices and video games and television and sleepovers and driving lessons, and proms and SATS will be gone in the blink of an eye, I get down on the floor and play trucks and trains and cars and I finger-paint and stamp and hand out big rolls of scotch tape and big boxes of band aids to the boys, just to see what they'll do with them.