The Ups and Downs of Being a Stay at Home Mom

I became a stay at home mom by accident. Literally, I was working full time and got injured, but i wouldn't trade it for the world. I realized I had time to spend with my children and not be rushed to every event that they had. What I didn't realize was how much my children fought. I didn't start looking for another job right away. I got to a point in my recovery where I realized I don't want to go back to a job where I never have weekends off and I feel so overwhelmed getting the kids to school and to sports. So I started looking for a job online. HA!

Just because the internet says it, does not mean that it is true. These scams of "Becky so and so made $7,000 a month click to find out how" are very tempting to click to find out what happens. Then they ask for you enter your phone number, email address, and name. This is a trick! As soon as you do your phone is blowing up with numbers you have never even seen before. You might as well just delete you email address because you will never be able to find anything with all the junk mail. Here comes the BIG kicker... Once you sign up for everything they ask you for money. I mean really you are looking for a job why would you pay them. You click the back button and a pop up appears to stay on this page for a discounted price. I actually was on one site where the original price was $89. I clicked back and the pop up appeared with a discounted price of $70. I clicked stay on page and then the back button again. The discount was down to $62. I repeated this process and their final offer was $1.99. I mean really why didn't you start at that price?

Try, Try, Try, and Try again. This is the motto to everything in life. Children are young and learning, well guess what? So are we. We are all learning everyday, no matter how old you are or how many children you have. Every child is different and must be handled that way as well. It is a hard concept to grasp and it may seem unfair to the other children, but you can not ground a 4 year old the same way you can ground a 10 year old. These kids fight non stop, so I had a great idea I will ground you together and make you two get along. BIG MISTAKE! I ended up telling them never mind and get as far away from each other as possible. They managed to work together to drive me more insane than I already am (within 10 minutes). But in reality you are going to fail , you are going to make mistakes. It does not make you a bad parent or a bad person. It shows you are human and proves you are learning.

The best way to keep yourself at home is find a way to budget your families income. The way I work is I write out a week and plan my meals for the whole week. Now you have to be strict and stick to your plan. Eating out on Wednesday and going to the grocery shop on Saturday because you don't want hamburger again is a big NO-NO. You have food at home, don't be lazy and break down. Plus that food you have planned for will most likely go bad if not used in a timely fashion. So then you are wasting money and wasting food.

Next Coupons are awesome. I know it doesn't seem like a lot, but I save on average 50 dollars a month using coupons in the local newspaper. I plan my meals according to what I can get on sale. Walmart has an app that you can scan your bar code of your receipt and if you have any items that are on sale locally they will put your savings on a walmart card for you. It is called savingscathcher. It works great btw!

So every parent knows when they get to that point they are going to blow, but do you know what to do before you get to that point? Mommy needs a time out. Five minutes away. That is all it takes. Plus do not forget you still need me time. Your hubby may think it is not fair to work all day and then have to come home and be dad, but he is not around these sweet innocent daredevils all day. After 8 to 10 hour day with screaming munchkins ask hubby to watch the young and you go take a run, a bath, or just go into the bathroom sit on the floor and breath.

Spend time on yourself. Don't let you lose you. Do something you love like listen to music, play a musical instrument, watch a show you love, or just read a few lines in your favorite book. In times like these you focus so much on everyone else that you forget who you are and what makes you, you. You are the one who keeps this world turning for everyone else. If you are not planted firmly your world turns into a bunch of marbles rolling on the floor. Mental stability is just as important as a money or food. I would rather be poor and hungry, but still have my sanity over being fat, rich and insane. Proven fact - If you feel good about your physical appearance, you are a happier person. If you are not happy about how you look, don't beat yourself up over it - do something about it. You don't like how you fit in your jeans - have the kids work out with you. You don't like you hair color - dye it. You don't feel sexy enough - get a sitter for the night and play a night of dress up with the hubby!

Remember to smile. Smiling makes you look younger and happy. If you see someone smiling at you , you are more likely to smile. So do the same for them. Give them a reason to smile for the day!