Stigma Of Being A SAHM

Posted by Vulnadia on Aug 25, 2010 at 07:19 PM I recently read a thread on our sister site about how SAHM's don't get the respect they deserve, specifically when this one Mom was referred to as a "Kept woman" by another. I SOOO can relate this one, it's not EVEN funny. Sometimes I feel awful or guilty about things like that making me bristle, but I really do things... In fact, I spent most of the summer and last spring trying to get my trio ready for school, get them into school, and that's not EVEN taking into account my eldest son's activities! I spent all of last school year helping ensure that my eldest would have every opportunity to earn his Varsity letter in Fencing since it was his first year on the High School Team (yes he fulfilled his requirements & has his letter but it meant a lot of money to fund the competition trips and gear and stuff & time!!!) Last week, when a friend of mine's father passed away, I received a call as I was trying to get my trio out of the house and loaded into the mommievan in time to make their testing sessions for baseline testing for ECE. I probably shouldn't have answered the phone in retrospect (which is ironic because usually I WONT answer the phone as a sort of phobia/too many years in customer service industry) but I did it for whatever reason. They wanted me to call people...lots of people...and I had to say NO and I STILL feel guilty for having to do it, but I honestly didn't know when I would be back home and for how long with everything the way it was (Bregon had started school that very day and school supply run was in my near future, a marathon testing session that I was running late for because the phone rang & I answered it...and on top of it, I was still trying to track down uniform pieces and that's on top of the usual try and get to the grocery store sans the kids attempts!!! I wasn't at home the rest of that day til about 1030pm...at least not where I could do anything other than get the trio dinner and ready & into bed before having to go back out to collect this or that... I did make a few calls on my cell before it finally protested too much & turned BLACK & blanked out on me...it freezes & refuses to do ANYTHING but turn off!!! In between testing sessions, I ran paperwork to the schoolboard, went back to school to trade out one child for another, ran to the library, the gas station, managed to procure lunch for the trio, traded out another child, collected the eldest, and made the mistake of thinking Target would have school supplies (simple for the eldest-boy was I wrong!) It was a LONG day...and since someone else's Mum had passed away the past Monday, on Thursday, I found myself with my trio and my 5yr old nephew while Daddy did the funeral bit...which meant that I had to run carpool for 3 different schools to collect a total of 7 children after it was all said and done then deliver them to their respective places in one piece and relatively on time! My kids came back from that one with matching smiley face bite-marks on their inside arms because cousin sat in between them (they adore this kid) and he wasn't feeling too chipper so he decided to bite BOTH of my boys...Vivienne was spared ONLY because she was in the middle seat and not in the back with her brothers! It was soo loud by the time I hit the high school that I actually slowed down for this wreck so the kids could get a "Here is what happens when you don't use your inside voices while an adult is trying to drive safely" speech...they were NOT impressed...but now one of my trio feels the need to backseat drive for me... Anyways, I thought once I got them into school, that things would settle down...and maybe sometime soon they might...so I will at least have time to work! Oh yeah, I forgot...like most do...that even though I'm technically a SAHM, I'm also a WAHM...meaning I do have 2 @ home jobs that I perform to actually make money...on top of everything else that I already do!!! I dunno how I would take being called a "Kept woman" what about you???