Comments on: Holding Down the Home Front

By: » Stay at Home Mom Strocel.com

» Stay at Home Mom Strocel.com — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 13:03:54 +0000

[...] months ago exactly I wrote about what it was like to be at home on maternity leave. At the time I expected that, by now, Jacob would be starting daycare and I would be preparing for [...]

By: What Next? | Strocel.com

What Next? | Strocel.com — Sat, 09 May 2009 17:01:45 +0000

[...] I have my doubts as to whether I would be good at stay at home motherhood, long-term. I’ve also shared my ambivalence about returning to work. I will say now what I couldn’t say then – I didn’t love my job. I certainly liked it. It offered me a great work environment, fabulous colleagues, amazing flexibility, and the chance to solve problems and use my brain in interesting ways. And I was well compensated for that. But I’ve never felt as if it was my calling to work in embedded software. At least not in the same way it’s my calling to be with my husband or to raise these children we created. [...]

By: Kirsten

Kirsten — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 02:34:49 +0000

Those rosy dreams are about doing tasks that are mostly f#*king boring. Fun once in awhile, making muffins and whatnot, but for 80% of your awake hours? I’d die. I honestly don’t know how women in our stage of life manage to keep a nice house (without the use of housekeepers) and not die of brain-rot.

This isn’t meant as flame bait (while I do like to kick up dust and see what happens, I won’t start a fight on your blog). I’m not saying that women who like keeping house are stupid; clearly they’re finding stimulation and satisfaction somewhere, but urg, i can’t do it.

By: Carrie

Carrie — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 16:48:53 +0000

I truly believe that the perfect “50′s-stay-at-home-mom” is a marketing creation of Hollywood. So if the house is a little messy and dinner is a frozen lasagna I’ve thrown in the oven at the last minute, so be it. Ocasionally I do get those amazing days where everything flows: the laundry gets done, the carpet gets vaccuumed, and dinner is more than a premade item from the store. But that is a one in a million kind of day
I know I’m not cut out for being a SAHM and I’ve made peace with it.

By: pomomama aka ebbandflo

pomomama aka ebbandflo — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 03:09:33 +0000

i’m still struggling with the SAHM role (ha! for sanity reasons we’re rarely at home! but that’s by the by). my only way of making the SAHM life tolerable for myself has been to start up my own small home business which gives me some distraction from the mundane feed ‘em/clean ‘em role i have ahead of me now. i actually left full-time out-of-the-house employment a year and half before my wee guy arrived so i had a slight head start on being the ‘kept’ spouse (i followed my husband overseas from UK on a job secondment) but always felt the need to stay active out of the house with volunteer work.
while i do think that being the parent at home is the best job i have ever had, i now feel the need to contribute more to the household budget but am not sure now how employable i am within BC.
i didn’t feel fully equipped at the start of motherhood and now am not sure how equipped it’s left me for anything else!

By: Heather

Heather — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 00:42:46 +0000

I totally feel you on this one – this has been my life for so long now…other than now I am not a SAHM anymore. I heard once, a long time ago someone say – you chose to be a stay at home mom, not a stay at home housekeeper. Your job is to raise your children and that can be a full time job. I wasn’t very good at letting the laundry and cleaning go – I’m still not, but sometimes I remind myself that the kids come first and the house can come second or third or fifteenth even!

By: Lana

Lana — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 00:35:48 +0000

My problem is that I finally get all the kinks worked out and then I have to go back to work. I still haven’t gotten my groove back and it’s been almost 4 months.

By: Katie

Katie — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 16:03:22 +0000

I really like this post, Amber. I think about this exact same topic all the time – would I manage being a housewife (errr hausfrau) full time for a while? The mental stimulation as an engineer must be tough for you. Your second to last sentence about buying bread at the store made me laugh. I hear ya!
Katie

By: Maria@Conversations with Moms

Maria@Conversations with Moms — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 16:00:18 +0000

Stay strong Amber. Take strength in knowing that you are not the only one who feels this way. My husband always worked full time but I can imagine how much harder it would have been for me if he was freelancing first then got an outside job.

It’s an ajustment I’m sure. If you ever feel like you’re going crazy, just blog about it if you can. It helps me.

I realized that we are almost in the same boat. My son is 4 and I am also on maternity leave for my two month old.