What the Heck is Going On?
(How the SAHM really feels)
Things just seem wildly out of control and I am not apart of any of it. OWS is stressing me out because I barely know what it is. Apparently there is going to be a new bill about student loan repayment but I don’t know what that really means, for me. I’ve been watching to many videos on YouTube about child slavery in the chocolate trade, and Halloween was yesterday {ethical dilemma, peeps}.
All this is happening while I’m just trying to manage my little family on my little street in my little house in America. I’m focusing on saving money at the grocery store. Paying my oil bill. Finding good priced rain boots for my brood. My daily-ness is so small compared to these big world issues and I’m just a stay at home mom attempting to make my online payments when they are due.
Is it okay for my seven year old to listen to Pandora all afternoon? Should my ten year old be allowed to ride her bike in the neighborhood? Is my toddler getting a rash because he needs to be Gluten Free or Dairy Free or is it because I didn’t buy the organic peppers last week? The non-organic ones were only .79 a piece and the organic ones were $2.50. And why did I just ruin my baby’s future for being cheap with the stir-fry?
My mind is so full with day in and day out life-living that the newspaper and NPR gets shoved to the wayside. When I finally have a chance to sit down and breathe, I truthfully opt for Facebook. And that just compounds the problem. Information overload. Someone will make a comment about the twitter war with the Taliban and someone else will share the great Groupon they got and suddenly I am reminded of the fact I consistently have no clue what is going on.
The other day I remembered I needed to check on getting our home refinanced. I spent about 15 minutes on hold, finally talked to a person and realized my FHA loan doesn’t qualify for the new program. Obviously if I had researched it a bit more I could have saved myself some time, but I didn’t because in the moment reading the fine print would have used more of my time. And for a stay at home mom, time is a commodity.
And the fact is it’s an overwhelming time to be a SAHM in this country.
We aren’t contributing financially to our family and we feel bad about it. We are over loaded because support systems aren’t in place and we are under appreciated because everyone thinks they had it harder then we have it. Yes, I have heard these conversations. Where the new mom mentions her lack of sleep and the experienced parent says, “Oh that’s just how babies are.” Insinuating that this new mother should get over it. Instead of validating we make her feel bad about it.
Besides not contributing financially and the guilt we feel for thinking it is hard- we feel like idiots half the time. It is true. We don’t read the paper every day week. We don’t really know what is going on in the world. We try. We do. When someone posts an article on fb we click right away, we want to be informed, we care.
But it is hard. We are an isolated bunch, us stay at home moms and we are working so hard on keeping our island above water, the rest of the country’s problems don’t seem as urgent.
We are dealing with the fundraiser for the PTA and the fact that our toddler was bullied at MusicGym and the thing is- that is important stuff too. Those things matter! We are this self-sacrificing lot that often is undervalued as consumers. Maybe some companies are figuring out how to meet our diapering needs but the News industry has not. We are an untapped into reservoir.
We want to be apart of the big picture. We are busy growing these little people to be good big people. We believe in the future, so deeply, because we are the ones raising it. So include us, inform us. Meet us where we are at.
At least try to.
i don’t know what OWS is. i am not googling it! i’d rather leave a comment b/c that’s all the time i have before someone poops again.
love you friend!
OWS= occupy Wall Street. xoxo
I’m with Amy…I don’t know what OWS is either, and don’t have the time to find out : ) But yes, I am definitely out of the loop as far as the rest of the world goes. I’m not even on FB, so I’m really out of it! When big things happen, I usually find out about it from Corbin…days later!
I knew what it was!! Gosh now I feel like I’m so ahead of the game.
The peppers are one of the dirty dozen, but I don’t think his future is ruined for eating the non-organics this week. BUT I was laying in bed last night thinking his rank poop and diaper rash proneness are likely related and maybe his eczema is due to food allergies since he hasn’t grown out it yet.
hmmm….so I do know what OWS is but I lay in bed at night thinking about other people’s kid’s poop. I’m super lame.
Amen!
On another note…I have a nasty poop and diaper rash prone toddler too. We (he) are currently lactose and fructose free (mostly) but I’m starting to wonder if he may be sensitive to legumes – and I know that you guys eat plenty of beans in your family!