Random SAHM...

When I was a SAHM (Stay-At-Home Mom), we didn't run out of anything. I refilled the soft soap bottles when they got half empty, bought more toilet paper when I ripped open the last package, and picked up new makeup as soon as the bottom of the case started to peek through the powder.

Now that I'm working, I often hear, "When are you gonna buy more (insert name of anything here)? We haven't had any for three days!"

***

When I was a SAHM, I emptied the trash when it got full. I hung up towels that had fallen down. I put the boys' clean laundry away. I picked up their toys.

Now that I'm working, I often mutter under my breath, "Am I the only person in this house who knows how to hang up a friggin' towel?!?"
And the answer is obviously YES, because I never taught anyone else how to do it.

***

When I was a SAHM, I walked my kids to school in the morning and walked to pick them up afterwards. When they were very small, I got the extra workout of towing them in our little red wagon as well.

Now that I'm working, I drive them to school.
And I walk on a treadmill.

*****

When I was a SAHM, and my kids said they were bored, we'd go do something. Walk to the park, go to the pool, play outside, grocery shop for something fun to eat, dig out crafts or games we hadn't played in weeks...

Now that I'm working, they call me at work during no-school days to whine about how bored they are. And you know what? I really don't feel any sorrow for them. 'Cause, dang it, *I* could find something to do with a day off.
And yes, I start listing chores they could be doing...

***

When I was a SAHM, I'd clean the house after the kids left for school and bask in its tidiness all day long. Fifteen minutes after the children had returned from school and had trashed the place, the husband would come home and say, "We really need to set a cleaning schedule."
I'd tell him, "I have a cleaning schedule. You should have been here fifteen minutes ago."

Now that I'm working, I do a quick once over of the house before I run out the door. When the husband comes home fifteen minutes before the boys do, he says, "Having a job is good for you. You get more done around the house now than you did before!"

Argh!

***
When I was a SAHM, my mother-in-law lived with us.
(ack!)
When I went back to work, she realized she was home alone for most of the day with no one to help her if she fell and broke a hip. And she realized that if something more tragic happened to her, there was a very good chance the first people to find her dead would be our children coming home from school.

So, she moved to an assisted living facility.

That alone makes me happy to be working.