Mom Breaks Down What Staying-at-Home Is Actually Like (and No, It’s Not Easy)
(Instagram / bubs2bikinis)
If you’ve ever been a stay-at-home-mom (SAHM), whether for a few days or a few years, you know that it’s anything but easy. While, yes, we do have the opportunity to go to the bathroom or sit down or drink some water whenever we want, it’s not always on our terms. We have to poop with an audience. If we want a drink, we probably have to give our beverage to our kid first. Or maybe they spill it on us. And if we sit, we often have a little rugrat climbing all over us. So really, it’s not easy. And while many folks make the incorrect assumption that it is, some folks, like popular Instagram user Anna Strode, aren’t afraid to set the record straight.
Strode (who goes by the username bubs2bikinis) is a mother to twin boys, with a baby girl on the way. The widely followed Instagrammer generally posts about motherhood and working out, which seems to be her two greatest passions. But recently, someone commented to her page basically insinuating that the busy SAHM doesn’t really have to “work” and that’s why she’s able to work out.
“Last week someone made a comment on my page and you know what, it upset me. It cut me pretty deep and while I do my best to remain positive – this hurt. It basically said, ‘I wish I got to stay at home all day and exercise with my child, instead I have to go to work and do WORK,'” reads the start of a post by Strode.
It makes sense that Strode was upset by the comment. While yes, being at home might give you some edge on squeezing in a work-out here and there as opposed to working, say, retail or in an office, that doesn’t negate all the very real work that SAHMs do. I know. I’ve stayed home with my son since he was born. I spent the first year mainly focusing all my energy on keeping him happy and healthy, while also keeping my house in order. And after that, I also began working from home as a writer, and no, it has never been easy.
Strode proceeds to break it down on just how much work she has to put in on a daily basis as the mother of twins (which is certainly no easy feat–I have twin nieces myself).
“My days are spent changing shitty nappies, dealing with tantrums, playing cars and trucks, making food that gets thrown on the floor before it’s even tasted, walking the streets trying to get tired, grumpy children to nap, attempting to teach two little humans to SHARE instead of bite, pull hair, scratch or push each other, pushing swings, climbing up and down bloody forts that shouldn’t even be in kids playgrounds because they are so damn unsafe, singing the alphabet, going for adventures to keep the bubs happy, vacuuming 3 times a day because of all that food that I worked so hard to cook wasn’t even considered eating, oh and did I mention the constant battle of playing referee ALL day between two little cheeky monkeys that guess what DON’T ‘just play happily and entertain each other all day!'”
Preach, mama! It is not easy wrangling children all day. It is a physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausting sort of work that we only do because, well, we love our damn kids and that’s just what we gotta do.
