When you are a working mom, you find yourself always thinking about all the tasks you would do with more time. When I changed from a working mom to a SAHM, I know I did many of these tasks. I organized all the closets, drawers, and rooms of my house at record speed. Many unused or outgrown items found their way into the Marketplace to be sold or given away. Afterward, I felt so accomplished. I was proud of myself for utilizing all this extra time as well as making a little money. I made myself a new daily schedule involving meals, school dropoffs, school pickups, and after school activities. I felt I had conquered the whole stay at home mom job description.
After a few months, I felt myself not waking up with that same perky attitude.
Some days the sink was full of dishes, and the toy room was never picked up. Looking at these uncompleted tasks made me feel unaccomplished and defeated so I decided to learn some new skills to combat these feelings such as watching all the seasons of “Chopped”. I learned how to make all kinds of new and old foods from scratch even getting my kids interested in cooking. For summer, I enlisted the summer reading program for free or almost free field trips for the entire family. I felt I had conquered summer with three kids.
When COVID-19 hit the area, I again felt like I could conquer this stay at home order. I started using my new found cooking skills to make “chopped” meals from my pantry and cleaning out the deep freeze to avoid the grocery stores. I attempted to make virtual learning more exciting for all the boys even though only one was attending school at the time. The local school district implemented a drive-thru food service that we pretended was a weekly field trip.
My boys often pretended there were zombies chasing us, which always makes for an exciting adventure.
Now, I have two boys in virtual learning, which has proven to be quite challenging with the four-year-old begging to participate. This, too, I tried to conquer by turning our dining room from the playroom into a classroom complete with tables, chairs, dividers, supplies, rug, pillows, and books. We often find ourselves on the deck or porch to enjoy the nice weather and sunshine while doing our work though.
As challenging as this has been, I would never have been able to accomplish this with my previous career. I am thankful I was able to share this new experience with my boys as well as get to know all of their teachers while helping them learn.
Have you transitioned from being a working mom to a SAHM? How did you embrace the changes?
