They're Lying.

Any stay-at-home-mom who leads you to believe that life at home with kids, be it one kid or twelve, is always fun, constantly interesting, and endlessly stimulating is a lying liar. It's not, always. It's hard work, and it can be mind-numbingly boring when you are acting out the EXACT SAME BARBIE SCENARIO for the 17th day in a row. If I had to type out a list of how my days go, they would look something like this 9 times out of 10: Make breakfast, play, clean the house, make lunch, naptime, scrub some toilets during naptime, sit down for 20 minutes during naptime, wake up the girl, dole out 163 time-outs between now and bedtime, play some more, clean some more, make dinner, drag The Daddy upstairs so he can start bathtime, bedtime for Ella, tv/laundry/dishes/dinner clean-up, in bed at 10pm sharp, The End. Exciting stuff, no? Monotonous, yes, but there's a really great secret hidden in there among all of the boring stuff and chores and time-outs and wiping noses: It's fantastic. I cannot think of any place on earth that I would rather be than right here in my house, day after day, week after week, having the privilege of watching oh-so-closely my daughter grow up. I may complain about the long hours now and then, and I may occasionally wish I got to leave the house and act like an Actual Grownup, with real clothes that do not include a sweatshirt and mismatched socks. But I honestly would not trade my time at home with my kid(s) for all of the money or fame or career-induced glory in the world. There will be plenty of time for that in the years to come, when maybe Ella and Charlie won't WANT me around them as much, and would prefer it if I left them alone. But for now, I will enjoy the 726,399th time that Ballerina Barbie wants to pretend to slide down the banister, and when Ella says, "Mom, will you walk to the park with me because you are my favorite friend?", I will say "Yes, please".