Guest Post: Learning (the hard way) how to be an At Home Mom

This post was written by Heather Dugdale.  I’m always looking to highlight different perspectives of motherhood, and when I stumbled on Heather’s blog, I knew she’d be perfect.  Heather is the author of the blog http://www.RecoveringWorkingMom.com/ where she chronicles her life with kids and shares her humorous insights about learning how to be a mom and trying to have easy family fun.  Thanks Heather!

When I found out my job was eliminated in October 2010, I cried. Partly because a job that I absolutely loved was no longer available to me, but mostly because I was terrified of being a stay at home mom (when I say that phrase I hear that ominous echo voice that they put on the Today Show when Al Roker says “Sunday, Sunday, Sunday” when it’s football season).

My husband’s first comment to me was “It’s ok honey, if you eat one of the children, we can always make more”. And we make some pretty cute ones. I have three beautiful blonde girls who are the most rambunctious, mouthy, loving kids you could meet. I don’t know where they get the mouthy & rambunctious part!

Although I was terrified, when I woke up on January 1, I decided I was going to enjoy every minute of my stay at home motherhood, and also follow the advice from a calendar that my mom had given me for Christmas. It’s entitled “Life is All About How You Handle Plan B”. I’m tellin’ ya, I’ve taken full advantage of this Plan B thing (and no, I have not enjoyed every minute, but I have managed to find the humor in most of those minutes).

Here are the Top 7 stay at home motherhood lessons I’ve learned the hard way:

1) Girls Night Out is code for “essential therapy without which I would actually eat my young.”
2) “Stay at home” mom is code for “at the gym, grocery store, dance studio, soccer field, insert child’s activity location here, child’s classroom, and any of the other 15 places I’m needed other than home”.
3) Hurry up and wait is a way of life.
4) Sitting down is not an option. The time you actually sit down when you’re “at home” is less than 45 minutes, and all of those minutes are spent in the car on your way to the activities you decided would make your kids “well rounded”.
5) Those closets you thought you’d clean out are still as cluttered as ever, and might be more so because you are home now so you can stuff a bunch more crap in them.
6) The exhaustion you feel is because you have just been verbally poked for hours straight by miniature versions of yourself.
7) If the CIA wants an effective form of torture – they should put terrorists in a minivan at 4pm with three children who have not had a snack or a nap.

I am a Triathlete, a Philanthropic Strategist, a Volunteer, an An Entrepreneur, and a new Stay at home mommy…and I’ve never been so exhausted, busy or happy in my entire life!

Want to hear more from Heather?  Check out her blog Recovering Working Mom!