The Hidden Value of a Stay-at-Home Mom

For the longest time I thought my wife was lucky that she got to stay at home. I would come home and see that the house was still a mess, the laundry was not done, there was no dinner waiting for me and sometimes everyone was still wearing their pajamas. Needless to say she would tell me how hard it is and that she works more than I do every day. I always figured, yeah right, she is just lucky that she gets to sit at home all day in her pajamas and play on the internet.

Recently my wife had to go out for the day and I had the pleasure of experiencing what it is that she does all day. Not exactly the laid back relaxing morning that I had in mind. We have 2 boys, 3 and 4, which I think were in on some conspiracy to make my morning not as relaxing as I had hoped. With me usually being gone before they even wake up in the morning I had no clue how to do everything on time, not that we really even had anywhere to go.

From the beginning they woke up way before they do usually on the weekend, 7:30am. Not really a big deal until I remember that their mom isn't here to feed them breakfast. I guess I really shouldn't have stayed up as late as I had the night before. I figured I would make them a nice breakfast of scrambled eggs. Of course after I make it my older son tells me that he doesn't want eggs and that mommy always gives him something else if he does want what she made. So after making waffles they both decide that they want me to feed them. This is something which I don't like that my wife will do to hurry the eating along so I refuse to do it on principal and tell them that if they don't eat they will get a time out. Of course without a moment's hesitation my older son says that he would rather sit on the stairs, our time out spot, than eat his food. So then the younger one decides that it would be fun if both of them were in time out and nobody eats. There they sat until I started threatening to take away toys. Wow look at that it is already 10am. Who would have ever thought it would take 2.5 hours to eat breakfast. This would ruin the whole day. I was going to let them play some of the educational games they have on their own computers but with trying to get them to eat I told them that they couldn't.

My wife usually finds some sort of activity to do with them now which is both educational and fun for them. Unfortunately I took away the one thing I think they really like which would give me some time to do some house work. There is now a nice pile of the stuff I used to make breakfast and the dishes used. Guess I will have to put that off until later.

We played some board games and play with cars and Thomas the train for probably about an hour. Other people would probably let the kids watch TV but in our house we only have a TV in our bedroom and in the basement which we use as an office/TV room. I guess kids always want to see what they can and cannot do with each person and since I am usually at work during the day they need to see how far they can go with me.

One of the things that I forget all about usually when thinking about what my wife does all day is handle the potty training. My boys have no problem going pee on their own but I always forget that after they poop they don't know how to wipe. I have a very weak stomach and when they were babies I would literally vomit when changing the poopie diapers. After a few wipes of the wet wipes we are done and then my younger one must have found it amusing for me to gag when wiping my older son because when my older son got up he tells me "Daddy I have to make a stinky." Lucky for me they are done in about 2 minutes so I didn't have to sit there waiting for a long time. Hopefully that will be the only poop they will have to make while mommy is gone.

Figuring how long it took for their breakfast I decided to try and get them eating lunch way before they would need a nap. I was already ready for one. I make them grilled cheese as that is one of their favorites. Going with the conspiracy to completely drive me batty they eat 1.5 sandwiches each in about 10 minutes. So we play some more. Guess those dishes too will have to wait until their nap.

Nap time! I am so exhausted that I think I fell asleep before kids did. My wife woke me up around 3pm to tell me that she was home. She looked around and laughed at me because the house was probably the biggest mess I have ever seen it, the dishes were stacked up in both sinks and we all were still in our pajamas.

I must say that I have a new found respect for stay at home moms because they have to use a wide variety of talents that they need to be able to utilize at different times.