I was married and working for 7 years before we had the twins. I admit, I thought that the stay-at-home life looked pretty easy. I mean, you take care of a child (or two, or three, or seven) and keep the house tidy and make dinner. How hard is that?
If you've ever wondered what, exactly, stay-at-home parents do with their time, I thought I'd give a glimpse of a typical day in our life. Wednesday, to be exact.
A Day in the Life of a Stay-at-Home Parent
5 am - Little Man wakes up and wants to know if it's time to get up yet. It is not. Send him back to bed. Ooooh how I love the early sunrises of May, because that little guy is up with the sun, no matter what.
5:20 am - "Is it time to get up now Mama?" "No buddy." "I need help to go potty" Up I go, help him on the potty, back to bed.
5:40 am - "VRRRRROOOOM" from the kids' room while Little Man plays with his cars.
6:00 am - "I want to cuddle Mama" Gosh, he's so cute. Okay buddy. C'mon up. (Say a prayer that he will actually sleep. No such luck.)
6:15 am - "I don't like your bed, I'm going back to my bed."
6:30 am - Hubby is up and I'm borderline hallucinating. I've had approximately 5 hours of sleep due to various nightmares and other issues the night before. Mama needs a lot of coffee. Stat.
7:00 am - Okay, okay, we are all up now. Make oatmeal with raisins and cranberries for breakfast for the kids (my attempt to get
two fruits into breakfast). Kids play and beg for food while Mommy stumbles around the kitchen in a fog. Sweet Lord thank you for coffee.
7:30 am - Eating breakfast together, the kids ask me to tell them "about the day they were born" illustrated with pictures. Pull up the laptop and show pictures and tell them their
birth story, watch videos of them when they were babies. I love hearing their questions about their baby pictures and "which baby is me?"
8:30 am - I realize that I forgot to feed myself (this happens a lot). Make myself some oatmeal and get the kids to oh-so-carefully carry their empty bowls into the kitchen. Eat breakfast.
9:00 am - Go upstairs to put contacts in, have Pumpkin Pie inform me that she needs a pants change because she had an accident. Spend 15 minutes cleaning up child and accident. Get the kids dressed.
9:30 am - Laundry, laundry, laundry - all the time laundry. (I often wonder how anyone ever managed without washing machines. People (women) did this by hand??? How???)
10:00 am - Clean our bathroom, bedroom, and playroom. Don't even get to dusting, but at least they got vacuumed. Kids are playing together during this time. God bless them.
11:00 am - Shower and dress
11:30 am - "We're hungry!" Off to make lunch (leftover burgers, carrot sticks and blackberries). Little Man falls asleep in his food after his super early wake-up. Carry him upstairs for a nap. His sister eats what's left of his lunch. Make another lunch for him for when he wakes up starving.
12:30 pm - Finish eating with Pumpkin Pie, cleanup, read a story, put her down for a nap as well.
1:00 pm - Chat with a friend on the porch, start the dishwasher, prep food for dinner tonight.
1:30 pm - Write a little.
2:15 pm - More laundry. Little Man wakes up and eats his remade lunch. I catch up with my bestie on the phone for a few minutes, before both of our sets of twins decide we need to get off the phone and our attention back to them!
2:45 pm - I decide we should go outside and play in the puddles (get our money's worth out of those rain boots, right?),
also Pumpkin Pie needs to get up from her nap or she will never sleep tonight. Help one kid on the potty and realize that the other has had an accident in that bathroom. While cleaning that up, kid number two has another accident. There's a lot of poo and pee in this portion of my day. After getting everyone cleaned up and in new clothing, socks, and shoes, it's already been 45 minutes. Get sweet potatoes in oven for dinner.
3:30 pm - Head outside to play. I love watching them splash in the puddles. I wish we had an actual yard instead of a parking lot, but either way it's fun to see them happily enjoying splashing away. Also fun because we are friends with some of our neighbors and the Moms get to chat while the kids play. Sweet!
5:00 pm - Get inside, dump water out of boots, strip children, and into the bathtub they go. While they are splashing around together in there, quickly finish up dinner and get it on the table. They get themselves out of the tub today, dry off, and run around naked and yelling. Good times. Get them dressed.
5:30 pm - Eat dinner together as a family. Clean up.
6:30 pm - We have a new rule around here that all toys must be picked up before bedtime - or no bedtime stories. It's working quite well and they actually like playing in the playroom now that it's organized enough to find their toys. So Daddy takes them on clean up duty while I finish cleaning up the kitchen/dinner stuff.
7:00 pm - Brush teeth, wash faces, prayers, and story time.
7:30 pm - Lights out. Except... they both took naps. No one is tired enough for bed tonight.
7:45 pm - Cry/Whining voices "WE CAN'T SLEEP! AHHH!" Daddy and I are watching a movie (this is our version of a date). Pause the movie. Tell kids that they can read with the lights on as long as they are quiet and in their beds.
9:00 pm - Little Man is asleep. Pumpkin Pie wide awake.
9:30 pm - Pumpkin Pie still awake, playing quietly, thank goodness.
10:00 pm - Movie is over, Pumpkin Pie still can't sleep. Rock her for a while in the rocking chair. We stare out our window at the blinking yellow stoplight in the foggy evening. She comments that it's harder to see now that the tree has leaves again. Special cuddles at the end our day.
10:30 pm - Pumpkin Pie is finally asleep. Mommy and Daddy are too. Zzzzz.
2:00 am - Little Man comes in to inform us that he is a) scared and b) needs to go potty. Good job little buddy. Help him on the potty. He tells me his "tongue feels itchy" - scary words for an allergy Mom and his hay fever is acting up, so a dose of Children's Benadryl is administered. Off to bed. Before I even leave the room, Pumpkin Pie speaks up, "I think I had an accident." Of course.... Luckily I had her
Brolly Sheet
on her bed, so it was an easy change (I love those things, by the way). Change her clothes, remove anything wet from the bed, new blanket on top and tuck her back in.
2:45 am - Back to sleep.
6:30 am - Start over.
Each day is different, but the themes are the same ~ food, play, love, and chores all mish-mashed together. Some days I get a workout in, some days I don't. Some days there is a lot of healthy food and some days we have to get takeout. Some days we go to the park. Some days we do art. Some days we play with friends and others we just play together.
I look back at my day and I see how some people would look down at it. After all, there is the mundane ~ laundry and cleaning and potty accidents. Some of it is repetitive. I don't have much to "show" for my day. No accolades. No paycheck. No promotions.
If you stop there though, you'll miss the joy. There's talking about how we were born, laughing at old pictures and videos together. There's playing in the rain and looking for robins and worms. There's stories and laughter and love in there too. There is so much learning. There's the constant questions about how the world works and the answers I'm so happy that I'm here to provide (or Google, as the situation requires). There are precious cuddles and kissed boo-boos.
I know many people who say they could 'never stay at home' with their kids. I get that. If it isn't fulfilling for you, then it's not the right choice. There is no point in being a stay-at-home parent if it makes you (and by extension your kids) miserable. Others have no choice. I get that too. We all do what we have to for our families. As for me, I don't miss working 40+ hours a week. I don't miss commuting. I don't miss dressing for the office every day ~ my uniform these days is yoga pants and t-shirt. I don't miss adult interaction, because I get to hang out and talk with other Moms while our kids play. I really, really don't miss being stuck in the office when the weather is nice and every part of me aches to be out in the sunshine. Every time I get outside and enjoy the weather with my children on a beautiful day I'm grateful that our family was able to make this work. This job? This stay-at-home thing? It's my favorite of all.
