Answer From Kelly

In the course of making this website I’ve had the pleasure of coming in contact with a lot of friends from my past.  One of them is Kelly, a gal that I knew briefly in my college days.  She also recently joined the ranks of the SAHMs thanks to her beautiful little girl named Lyla.  I asked Kelly what she has learned over the past 8 months of being a stay at home mom and her response was so thoughtful that I asked her to let me share it.

I’ve learned a few things from being a SAHM…

• Your life is not your own anymore.  For me, I have always worked full-time since I was 16 so that was a HUGE adjustment for me. Plus, I am very social so it’s hard to be inside with no other adults.  Luckily, I have a few friends that live around me and are in the same position in life as I am, so we can sometimes get together.
• It is HARD WORK!  If I am not taking care of the baby, I am cleaning, cooking, paying bills, doing laundry, etc.  I obviously can’t say much but I would be willing to bet that being a SAHM is a lot more work than working a 9-5 job.  It is 24/7!  But it is definitely more rewarding
• I’ve come to realize that I need to do things for me.  We just moved to a new area right after we had our baby, then my husband tore his ACL and had surgery on it.  So our activities were limited and I was serving them hand-and-foot without taking much time for me.  So after talking to my husband we agreed I needed to do things for myself.  So this summer I am taking a tennis class that is on Saturdays when [my husband] can watch the baby (so fun!).  And this coming fall, I am taking a digital photography class at an art institute that is one night a week for 4 hours and I’ll end up with a certificate in it.  Hopefully I’ll be able to use that to start a small business of taking family portraits for people and earning a little extra money.  It’s little things like that help me to feel better about being at home.
• I feel more organized and I spend less money when I plan my meals for the week and only buy items I will need so I don’t end up wasting uneaten food.
• My baby and I are happier when I take the time to play with her and let her crawl all over me instead of making her play by herself while I try to get things done.  I think that one-on-one time is really important.

Thanks for your contribution Kelly! I was thinking about this last bullet you wrote while I was playing with Cee and I realized that as a mom I’ve really had to learn to let things go.  Time with Cee is his time which means that things aren’t always in their place or the dishes don’t always get done right away, but that”s fine.  My day was a success because Cee knew that I loved him and after that everything else is second rate.

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