"Just Another Day"

From a Stay-at-home mom with "nothing" to do

   Often I'm asked what I've done all day.  Or yesterday.  Or the day before.  I'll rack my brain and almost always end up with the same answer: "Nothing, really."

    So why is it I go to bed exhausted?

    Like other stay-at-home moms, from the minute I get up in the morning, my hours are filled with nothing.  Take, for instance, my typical day:

    I get up.  No, sorry--I'm woken up.  Get dressed.  Make beds.  Pick up toys.  Make breakfast.  Clean up dishes.  Wash kids.  Brush teeth.  Dress Kids.  Check list for evening meal.  Put load of laundry in washer.  Clean toilet---boys missed.  Brush my hair.  Get kids' coats, hats, mitts ready.  Pack school snack.  Put on lipstick.  Pick up toys.  Get kids into car.  Carpool and pick up other kid.  Take kids to school.  Make quick stop at grocery store.  Unpack shopping.  Unload dishwasher.  Pick up toys.  Pick up kids.  Make lunch.  Throw half of it away.  Clean up dishes.  Clean toilet--boys missed again.  Vacuum.  Put laundry in dryer.  Put second load on.  Get kids' coats, hats and mitts again.  Take youngest to preschool.  Drop other son off at friend's.  Put laundry away.  Clean bathrooms.  Pick up kid from preschool.  Pick up from friend's.  Make snack.  Stop fight.  Put Band-Aid on.  Wipe up spilled drink.  Wipe kids bum.  Put second load in dryer.  Get kids to do homework.  Check school calendar.  Stop fight.  Clean finger marks off window.  Pick up toys.  Pick out clothes for the next day.  Kids want drink. Again.  Mop up spilled drink.  Get kids to pick up toys.  Phone husband--how long will he be?  

    And then it's four o'clock.  Magic hour.  It's time to watch Oprah.  I don't care-- I'm sitting down now.  I'm not going to feel guilty.  This is my treat, my recess, my coffee break.  I'll just clean this room as I'm watching it.

    Everyday, I look forward to a program without bouncy bunnies, magic monkeys or dancing dinosaurs.  But as sure as Oprah is on at four o'clock, one of the following will happen: someone will want a drink; someone will fall; the telephone will ring; the doorbell will ring; the telephone and the doorbell will ring.

    By the time I've actually sat down, I've missed why Kenny from Kentucky is in rehab, I've missed why Chuck from Chicago is going to rehab and I'm wondering if there's a rehab for Wacko from Winnipeg because I need to go there.

    I finally get to watch the end of the show.  I can't wait to hear Tony's story--looks like a tear-jerker.  And then in walks my husband, who's early for a change, with a must-be-nice-to-sit-around-and-watch-TV look on his face.  "I can't wait to sit down," he says.

    I try to explain, I try to recount my day, but there's no point; there's nothing to say.  So I get up, make and serve dinner.  The kids are done before I've even sat down.  Well, it doesn't take long to eat one pea, say "Yuck!" and take a gulp of milk.  At least I get to eat in relative peace--if only my husband would stop talking about how he had to do lunch at some posh restaurant, how he met some really interesting people and how he's so tired because he's had such a busy day.

    I imagine the day someone tells me what a great mom I am.  Or says thank you for washing the underpants, or well done for changing the sheets.  But dinner is over and so is my daydream. 

    So I load the dishwasher, get my husband to bathe the kids, clean the kitchen, find pyjamas, pick up toys, dry the kids, tell them to put on their pyjamas, and tidy the bathroom I just cleaned today, shout at the kids to put their pyjamas on, shout at my husband for not getting the kids to put their pyjamas on, get the kids a drink, brush their teeth and say those magic words: "It's bedtime."

    I plead with my husband to do the bedtime routine.  "I'm exhausted," I whine, though who knows why.  After all, I've been doing nothing all day.

    Thirty minutes later, the boys have run out of excuses to keep coming downstairs.  There is no noise.  There are no kids.  No toys to pick up.  I sit down in time for the eight o'clock movie.  And fall asleep.  And then go to bed.  And am woken up at 6:35 the next morning to do nothing all over again.

Sound familiar??   lol