Ok... so picture this you are sitting at your desk at work and your boss calls you to his office. You promptly stop what you were working on and start down the hallway, all the while thoughts are racing through your head: What now? Did I wear the wrong color today, are my heels to high, did I take an extra 2.2 seconds for lunch? Hmmm.. Did I take up to much space in the "company refrigerator"? Did I park in the wrong level of the parking garage? Did that personal phone call I took from my son's school nurse get me in trouble? My work is caught up, I am doing great.. what could this be about? You finally make it down the hall to his office where he promptly asks you to shut the door. "Oh, No" you think to yourself. This must be serious. He asks you to sit down and then it happens. "The Proposition". "Enter said name here, how would you like to change your hours? Matter of fact, how would you like to work overtime also? Your mind reeling you think about your family at home and what this could mean to your "family unit". He goes on... You won't get paid per say... But you will receive happiness and contentment from clients, co-workers, and staff knowing that your hard work is benefiting the company. You promptly tell him you will go home and speak to your "husband/wife" and as you open the door to leave he casually states "Oh, and your hours would be 24/7".
Well, my friends that is what it was like for me oh, about roughly 3 days into my new job as a full time homemaker and Stay-At-Home-Mom as I came to the realization that my job never ends. I woke up after being up most of the night with a fussy 8 week old to a happy and chipper almost two year old wanting to get up and play. As I stumbled to the coffee pot, hubby still snoring on the couch oblivious I am thinking.. What have I done? I traded in my 8 hour work day and perfect organized day for this? I signed up for this? No... not me? I was great at what I did. I knew precisely what each day would hold doing the 7:30-4! I knew what I was doing, I did it well and had the admiration of superiors and management. No need for self discipline, it was all ingrained into the daily know how of my job. There was no hesitation, no question, every day I sauntered into the office at 7:30am did my job and left promptly at 4pm. That was it. Same thing every day. As I made the coffee losing count of the scoops and having to redo it three times I came to the realization that I now work 24 hours a day seven days a week. I am a chef, maid, chauffeur, nanny, entertainer, mom, wife, and don't have a clue what I am doing! How in the world can an experienced wife and mother of 4 not know how to get a handle of staying at home and being a full time homemaker and mother? You see... there are 6 of us going in 6 separate directions at all times. We are all on different schedules, and to make matters worse no day was the same! How can this be? Well my dear friends it has now been 6 months and I am still a work in progress and still have no clue how to run this ship. We have some good days and some bad. I am currently in the process of working out a schedule (this has been in the works for 6 months now, so I use the word "currently" loosely of course.) I have researched different stay at home mom's schedules, but haven't found one yet that fits our family. There are 4 little ones on different schedules, all needing or seeming to wake up at different times and eating at different times and this is definitely going to be a challenge. I have come to the realization that I might possibly need professional help to get this so-called "schedule"down, or maybe just a little more self-discipline.
Through all of this, I have been through the roller coaster of emotions and am slowly coming to the conclusion that I am not a "failure" at this new job, I just have to learn the ropes! The endless smiles from my children, and the fact that I have gotten closer to each and every one of my them are making this easier as the days go by and make me realize that I may not have a schedule and things may just be crazy, but we are still a family and I am at home raising them, not leaving them in the hands of someone else.
To any parent out there that has gone through this transition I would love to hear from you on your day to day life and how you make it work, especially with more than 2 children. To those of you that will be making this transition soon, don't fret, we are in this together you are definitely not alone! Tomorrow I will post examples of an entire day in our house and the comings and goings! Until then......? I will probably just run around in circles.
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