Great article!

A friend in my MOPS group sent me this article today and I thought it would explain to you..my non-mom friends...some of what I do all day. This article was a response to a reader that asked the question: My friend stays home with her kid all day at when I call her at night says she is tired and was busy all day and could barely get everything done. Is she lying? Does she just not want to talk to me? What does she really do at home?

Answer: When you have young kids your typical day is: constant attention from getting them out of bed, fed, cleaned, dressed; to keep them out of harms way; to answering their coos, cries, questions; to having two arms and carrying one kid, car keys, and supplies for the trip out; to keep them from unshelving books at the library; to enforcing rest times; to staying one step ahead of them least they get hungry, tired, bored, any of which produces lots of screaming. It's needing 45 minutes to do what takes 15. It's constant vigilance, constant touch, constant use of your voice, constant regulation of your needs to second tier.

It's constant scrutiny and second guessing from family and friends. It's doing all this while concurrently teaching virtually everything- language, manners, safety, resourcefulness, discipline, curiousity, carefulness, creativity, empathy. Everything.

It's also a choice, yes, and a joy. But if you spend everyday all day with this brand of joy, and then when you get your first 10 minutes to yourself wanted to be alone with your thoughts instead of catching up with a friend, a good friend shouldn't complain about you or marvel at your productivity and how you spend your time. *

I personally don't have an issue with friends bothering me at night..I love to catch up with people...but I thought the answer gave a pretty good idea of why even a day with just a toddler can be exhausting, demanding, and stressful. It's really wonderful too..but it's definitely a full time job!