Toddler Mom Revelations

We are a noble social crowd, an up and coming pop culture phenomenon known as the SAHM. We are the mothers who choose to cut coupons, forgo vanity, and dismiss the luxury of careerdom to be the moms we never thought we'd be, the ones that stay at home.

My daughter is 2, she'll be 3 in March. She's rambunctious, funny, intelligent, and happy. I couldn't be more lucky. Did I mention she's intelligent? At nearly 3 there are times when I swear she is smarter than I am. I thought that when she grew out of the baby phase I wouldn't need to watch her as much. Boy, was I ever wrong. I feel like I need a security camera in every room of the house and a monitor room with survailance teams available 24/7 to keep up with my little monkey.

Some of the more dangerous antics I've caught her in are the biggest cause for concern. I caught her climbing on my built in bookcase last week. She'd made it up to the third shelf from the ceiling by the time I figured out where she was. Also, she's discovered that our gas fireplace can be turned on with a switch. Guess what her newest favorite button does? She's also learned that she can move the dining room table chairs over the counter by pushing them on our linoleum floor and she can reach all the things on the counters - like the sinks and the faucets, the candy we keep in the cabinets, and the under the counter radio/cCD player we got for Christmas. So far I've already had to take cookies and DVDs out of the CD player.

The last time I went to the movies was when Disney's Chronicles of Narnia The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe was in theaters. I was 6 months pregnant. My biggest trills are when she actually pees on the toilet in the public restrooms when she screams in the middle of Target "MOMMY! PEE PEE POTTY!" Her newest trick is just screaming that so that she can go and play with the soap dispensers and hand dryers.

She's a smart alec, too. She will repeat back everything I say, including the phrase, "I SAID NO!" Most of the time I swear she doesn't listen to a word I say, but when I cut myself the other day and muttered "s***" don't you know that she repeated that word all evening. She'll put her hand on her hip and point her finger at me with all the sass she can muster, just like I do to her, because she's essentially a miniature me. God have mercy on our future.

I work from home, which is interesting. I'll leave her in the living room for 10 minutes to pull up something on my computer and when I come back she's dumped her juice out on the floor or fed her corndog to the dog or fed the dog her toy just so that she can get the dog in trouble. She broke our Wii somehow, broke a decorative stein, broke a stocking holder at Christmas; well, you get the idea. She's like a force of nature. I find many of her toys on the landing after falling down the stairs. Sometimes I wonder if they're trying to commit suicide in a desperate attempt to get away.

At the end of the day, I can know that she was safe all day and never really alone. She isn't thrown in a room with 20 other kids and 3 "teachers" to fend for herself. We stay at home, play games, dance, watch movies, go the library, go to play dates, and enjoy this time in her life together. In two years I won't have it any more. She'll be in school from 7:30 am until 2:00 pm and I'll be working somewhere during that time period as well. This time right now that I have with her, I'll never get back.

Being a stay at home mom is worth all the coupon cutting, budgeting, and spending limits in the world. I could have put her in a day care. I'd have some money, but probably not much more than we have now after I paid all the day care fees. I can't see the worth of spending all that money for someone else to raise her and squander this time in her life, when I can make it work at home with her. She's my child to raise, not some stranger's.