Monday's Oprah

I realize I'm a little late getting to this but I'll blame my broken laptop and the fact that I have to use Jeremy's work computer. That's also the reason I can't post pics of our outing to Conner Prairie until my laptop is fixed. Feel free to file your complaints with IT (Jeremy).

I'm not an Oprah lover, I could take or leave her most days, it really depends on the topic. On Monday I was sure to tune in because she had a show on motherhood and how stressful it is. They had working mothers and stay at home mothers, mostly of diaper age kiddos, and the basic conclusion was that no one tells you how hard it's going to be and no one give moms enough credit for how hard it really is.

They had a panel of mothers from all over joining the convo via skype and many of them had confessions of 'horror stories' related to diapers, forgetting to feed or bathe their children and in the most extreme case....using a baby's diaper to pee while driving cause she didn't want to stop the car and wake the child. Personally I think that lady was a little nutso.

All of the moms on the panel seemed overly frazzled to me. Oprah greeted the mom of a 3 week old by asking her when was the last time she bathed. I was a little surprised by the stereotype that stay at home moms are all unkept, unbathed frazzled women with messy houses who's heads are about to explode. Certainly the women they featured fit into that description.

I'm not saying that there aren't days when our house is a disaster and I don't get out of my yoga pants, it happens...but I hate to see women have such a negative view about the reality of the "job". I think like any job or life choice, it is what you make it and I've found that having a sense of humor about things like potty training and breastfeeding, rather than stressing out, always seems to make things smoother.

I don't claim to have it all together but I would like to think that my last two years as a SAHM have been my happiest and my succesful 'job' to date. At the risk of sounding overly confident, which is NOT my intention....I would like to share a few things that have helped me not only survive but thrive in this job.

Releasing control- we are Christian and believe that God is in control of all things anyway. When you try to relinquish control of your life, I'm pretty sure God just laughs at you. Giving it over to him is the easiest way to relax and de-stress.

Laugh- ever hear that saying that I had to laugh, otherwise I'd cry? I put that into practice alot around here. Although I did cry a little when I broke the bed in the middle of the night, but I blame hormones.

Stay Social With Your Peers- if this were a corporate job, I'd be expected to network, right? So I network around town. We go to stroller aerobics, MOPS, library time...where I am literally surrounded by other SAHM's on a daily basis. This is nice to help us from feeling lonely, but also they are a great resource for questions about parenting or what's going on in our community, or where is a good place to take the kiddos. I also have an online community that I've been on since we were all pregnant with our April 07 babies and I LOVE these women. They are usually the first ones I go to for advice.

Organization- every day is exactly the same, yet always different. We follow a daily schedule that very rarely changes. If you peek into our house on any given day at 1pm, Tessa will be asleep and Charley and I will be on the couch surfing the web. I've also recently started a weekly schedule that includes what days I'm cleaning what and what we're eating. Not ONCE has the weekly calendar gone perfectly to plan and it probably never will, but the point is it's there as a guideline.

A Good Hubs- cause even though childcare is my 24/7 profession, everyone needs a break now and then. Jeremy gets stressed out when it comes to having both kids under his care, but he does it anyway cause that's what Dads do! It allows me a chance to nap or get my hair cut or whatever. He also knows what his tasks are around here (like groundskeeper, IT and sommelier) so we can operate as a well oiled machine... and the less we stress the more time we can have fun.

I'm sure there's more but I've got one with a full diaper laying on the floor crying and another one running around naked guzzling milk and singing Elmo's song. So I think my time is up.