Confusion

Recently, on the Today Show they put a dollar figure to how much a stay at home mom should make a year should you put a dollar value to her work. Now shows do this all the time, and frankly I'm confused. I'm confused as to what it is that is so amazing and hard about the work of a stay at home mom. Now I mean no offense to my stay at home mom friends, many of which are honestly up to their eyeballs in work that I could not imagine doing - like my friend who is the mother of 4 month old triplets. But for others it is just that I have a hard time understanding. You see I come from a different place, a place with a different set of expectations and examples. My mom worked. And because of what I know about her, about how hard she worked, about how tired I am when I get home and I don't have three kids to deal with....

Growing up my mom did everything. She worked a full time job. Cooked from scratch dinners at night four out of five nights a week. Washed the dishes and never left a single dish in the sink before she went to bed. On Fridays we went out to eat as a family to give her a break. On Saturdays she woke up at 6am. Cleaned the bathrooms. Cleaned the kitchen. Did laundry for 5 people. Cooked a bigger meal than usual, one that would take hours to prepare. Changed the sheets. Mopped the floors. Vacuumed. Even went to church and went grocery shopping. On Sundays she would make us breakfast and relax the rest of the day watching movies or taking us shopping and then make a big Sunday dinner.

So you see, you can't fault me for not understanding the plight of a stay at a home mom. My mom did all the things a stay at home mom did and more often then not she did it better. She didn't complain. She didn't talk about how hard it was to be a mom or how exhausted she was with everything she had to do. She simply did it. So when I hear stay at home moms complain about how busy they are or how tired they are, when they don't cook or wash the dishes the every night I'm confused. I'm confused not only because I had to work all day - sometimes until 8 or 9pm and still wash the dishes and do my laundry - but really confused because I saw my mom do all that and more with three kids and a husband. :-)