Becoming a Stay At Home Mom

You mean to say you are going to be staying home with me everyday???

What do the words Stay At Home Mom mean to you?  I used to think it meant going to the Country Club everyday, wearing your cute tennis outfit and hitting balls around the court for a few minutes, grabbing cocktails at lunch and eating bon-bons in the afternoon.  PUH-LEASE!  After being home with my son for 12 weeks I realized this the farthest thing from the truth!  I also used to judge other women that were stay at home moms and think that their job is the easiest thing on the planet - WRONG!

I have respect for both the working mom and the stay at home mom.  Both jobs are a lot of work just in different ways.  When I was pregnant I read an article about what it's like to be a stay at home mom: full-time housekeeper, chef, nanny, grocery shopper, the list went on and on... I thought, yeah but when you're a working mom you have to do all that PLUS go to work.  I only have experience working for 3 weeks, so I wouldn't at all consider myself an expert on what it's like to be a working mom, but I do have a little insight.  I feel like if you stay at home you have to make the housework & cooking your job and it better be done ALL the time, like 24/7 365, no lunch breaks or peaceful potty breaks, you better be ON 100% of the time... Maybe this is too much pressure for myself, but I want to perform well at my new job... Wondering if my husband could give me an annual review so I can stay on top of my game - lol, jk, but not really!

Going to work all day means you get some "me" time:

• Eating lunch with zero interruptions (aka crying baby), but you could have work interruptions
• Talking to adults all day instead of having one-sided conversations with a miniature poop machine 
• Going to the bathroom and not trying to rush after being in there for .5 seconds to soothe a crying baby because they just realized you left the room

The list of things above are all things that I took for granted while I was on maternity leave and didn't realize how much I had missed such simple tasks.

Putting all these things aside, I've been given the opportunity to stay at home with my little one and I wouldn't change anything in the world to be able to spend this time with my him.  I know he is going to grow up in the blink of an eye and I'm just so thankful that I'm going to be able to spend as much time with him as I can.  

So whether you're a working mom or a stay at home mom, you're a MOM and we all can relate to one another.  I hope all of you will stick around as I travel through this new chapter of my life...