Monday, June 1, 2009

It's Okay to Just be a Mommy!

I think most of my readers know that I work part-time out of the home. I fall into that gray area where I can't identify with either set of moms...stay-at-home (yes, kind of)...working mom (yes, kind of) and neither group will really accept me into their realm of mommyhood. It's a tough place to be, but after nearly 6 years, I've learned to be comfortable with being an outsider. It's a nice balance for me.

Anyway, I don't work on Mondays or Fridays (or Saturdays and Sundays, for that matter). Those are my days at home with the kiddos. Lately, however, it doesn't seem that those days have been spent "with" my kids. Sure, I'm here with them, but not really with them. During the school year, I spent my M/F (that is short for Mondays and Fridays) volunteering, logging onto work email and working, doing all the laundry/housework, etc., etc. I didn't decide to stay home with the kids so I could be the maid...I stay home to be the Mom. I think I've blogged before about the difficulty of finding balance in my life. But I'm at a point in my life where the scales aren't going to be balanced. And I'm okay with that!

But this weekend I decided "enough is enough". I am my kids mom, the only one they've got and they need me to be present. So you wanna know what we've done today??

Yoga--yes (me and kids--well the kids were in and out, but Baby Lam stayed with me the whole time and attempted to do yoga--it was SO funny. I'm not sure how "centered" I was because I was laughing so hard at her cute little poses).
Library--yep
Summer lessons--yep (I promise, I really am going to do a post on this sometime soon).
Outside play time--yep
Naps--yep
Dance party--yep
Made cookies--yep
Read books--yes
Jump on the bed--yes
Make the beds--no
Laundry--nope
Clean up the kitchen--nope
Pick up the toys--nope
House is a total mess--yeppers
Logged into work--not today (that was a hard one not to do).

I know WM is going to come home, take a look around and wonder what in the world I've done today. And you know what I'm going to tell him????

"Just been being a mom to our kiddos"

And I've loved it!

7 comments:

Joy said...

I am proud of you and your day, and I hope you have as many of those this summer as possible.

In ten years, you'll never say, "I wish I would have done that load of laundry."

You rock, Mama Lam.

Anonymous said...

Yea for you! Just today Nip and I had a discussion about the guilt that goes with having all these plans for how I would raise my children only to find that work and housekeeping gets in the way too much. And now working from home makes it that much harder.

I'm an outcast in both groups too! It's really lonely here in our weird group! Well I hate we deal with it but I'm glad we're not alone.

By the way, "yeppers" is one of my fave-o-rite words in the world!

Viva Cuervo said...

Sounds like a great day! Yea for you and your three little Lams! You're creating some wonderful memories with them.

Savvy Sassy Moms said...

Nice! I feel the same way as you do, always trying t5o find balance! Keep being a FUN Mom :)

My Bottle's Up! said...

i hear ya! great post. keep up the good "work."

cheers!
nic

Nanny Deprived said...

Everyone needs one of those mommy days. Perhaps that was what "centered" you today!
Amanda

ThatsBaloney said...

Good for you. My house looks like crap right now, too.
I haven't found that balance yet and I am a stay at home mom.
Hard for others to believe that I have things to do and outside interests.