Q for the stay at home moms who used to work full time before baby: are you having a hard time adjusting? Do you find the time easy to fill up? Do you have a schedule?
well, i worked part-time before, but i can definitely say you won't find it hard to fill up the time with a new baby! it often feels like i am working two jobs.
Well I would say the adjustment is not the workload, as erin said, there is PLENTY to do. Having been home over a year now my biggest adjustment was validating what I do all day some days, mostly to myelf. There are no paycheck at the end of the week with bonuses to say you did a good weeks work. Now don't get me wrong there are plenty of rewards but sometimes its harder to see. Someoene sent me an email once that was something like a SAHMs to do list. It went something like, load of laundry, bake cookies, pay bills, clean bathroom. Well the well intentioned SAHM starts things and all along the way she gets sidetracked (pick-up spilled sippy cup and wipe up juice-notice plants need watered, start laundry-notice laundryroom needs swept, etc.). By the end ofthe day she has 1/2 a load of laundry done, a mess of bills now sitting in a pile by the computer, the bathroom cleaning supplies in her tub. Some days are very much so like that. Those days the sense of accoplishment can seem far away. As for a scedule we have a pretty lose on, but there is one. Madie kind of set it up for us on her own. She naps 3 times a day once late morning, one afternoon and one evening. We try to set some time aside to go out each day, even if just for a walk in the neighborhood, its good to get out of the house. Target is a favorite errand too. Then we have to help the older one with homework ans start dinner. After all the clenup it close to bath time and bedtimes. I really finally get some downtime about 9:30 each night, my day starts at about 6. HTH. Good Luck, staying home is a great thing.
itsapinkthing_housefulofgrls wrote: Well I would say the adjustment is not the workload, as erin said, there is PLENTY to do. Having been home over a year now my biggest adjustment was validating what I do all day some days, mostly to myelf. There are no paycheck at the end of the week with bonuses to say you did a good weeks work. Now don't get me wrong there are plenty of rewards but sometimes its harder to see.
This is so true. I'm a workaholic, so for that month of being home was an experience for me. I hadn't been off that long since I was in school getting summer break. The whole thing with getting tons of stuff only half done was really true for me and very frustrating. When you stay home all the time you don't really have a break so to speak..I mean you work a 9-5 job and at 5 you leave knowing you can pick up where you left off the next day. That doesn't happen when you are a SAHM. I give you guys props.....that's a tough job with little recognition.
I will second everything itsapinkthing said. And NO, I don't have any trouble filling in the time, I have trouble finding the time to do aesthetic things like organize a sock drawer and properly fold both of my boys clothing (and I just don't fold DH's clothes).
And add that due to postpartum hormones, you may very well find yourself much less organized than before....and you mind not even mind. Mothers are prewired to focus on their babies.
I get this info from this great new book I am reading, The Female Brain, by Louann Brizendine, MD.
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