Confession #28: Mommin' Ain't Easy
Over the years I have been a mother: 10 1/2, to be exact, my motherhood-ness has changed. It went from the days of calling my husband in a panic needing him to come home because I just. couldn't. do. it. anymore. The baby. The baby. The baby. She was too needy, too cry-y, too not-sleepy. I couldn't do it all by myself by 4:45 in the afternoon.
Then my motherhood-ness changed again over the next five years. We added two more children to the brood, and I was no longer working outside of the home. That in itself was a huge change. It made it easier to handle the things at home since I was there all of the time. However, where were all of the adults I had apparently been taking for granted? Those adults I spoke to every single day, surely keeping me sane in our camaraderie. Where had they all gone?
Today, in my eleventh year of mommin', I realize how different my motherhood-ness is now. I am back in the work force, working part-time at a job I adore. I am back in the world of feeling invigorated by adult conversations and productivity outside of my home. It's truly the best. And now my job as a mother is even more complex than it ever has been. It requires a calendar and sticky notes....everywhere I go.
Nearly every minute of my day is planned or spoken for, mostly in order to get children to and from the places they need to be. I hardly have any room for error or misjudging of my time. Most of my conversations with my husband relate to transportation or schedules. At least when the babies were little, we talked about them and what they were doing. Now it's just where they are going, and I guess it is all in an effort to get them where we want them to be going.....in life.
You know why people don't say Daddin' Ain't Easy? Because that statement doesn't resonate the way it does about moms. The expectations of women are so much higher when it comes to the home things, the kid things, the house things, and the every-things.
I've never even seen my husband write a to-do list. SERIOUSLY. Never. Never. Never. The dude has never written down a list of things he needs to accomplish in the day to make sure all is well at home, at work, at school, with the kids, with sports practices, with carpooling, with grocery shopping, with spirit days, with school carnivals, with classroom parties, with holidays, with birthdays, or just to get through the damn freaking day. If he has a to-do list in his hand, and that is a big IF, I am probably the one who wrote it.
And that, my friends, is why Mommin' Ain't Easy.
{but we wake up the next day, a new sunrise, a new set of eyes, and we take on the day.....}
