Being a stay at home parent is no easy fête. If you’re engaged, attentive, and hands on like a good parent should be, by the end of the day you’ll most likely be a little drained. There are stay at home parents who really go the extra mile for their families by preparing most of their children’s meals and helping them reach child developmental milestones all the while avoiding excessive amounts of screen time. These are super humans who almost never leave their children under 5 unsupervised. Referring to stay at home parents as a hard wouldn’t be a stretch; comparing a regular day job to being a stay at home parent wouldn’t be a stretch either.
Childcare is expensive because its challenging. I understand why many parents chose to stay at home with their children as opposed to sending their child off to daycare. For one, who can you actually trust with your extremely young children? Many people simply don’t feel comfortable yet sending their very tiny child off into the hands of strangers. Also, the economy is really tough right now. The cost of childcare is so high it can offset almost anyones monthly paycheck. For a decent childcare/preschool a family may be paying as little as $1200 a month for 1 child. If they have multiple children at that age, forget it! Stay at home parenting quickly becomes an options for so many families because it saves them money in the long run.
There are a number of things you simply can’t do on the job while stay at home parenting. You can’t use the bathroom in peace, for one. You can’t entertain in adult conversations, for two. Very rarely can you sit down for longer than 5 minutes at a time while stay at home parenting… especially if your child is awake. If you have more time for relaxation while on this job it says more about what you do with your time with them than anything. Focusing on anything other than your hyperactive tiny human/s is nearly impossible while clocked in. There are always a number of tasks, duties and chores or meal prep that needs to be done throughout the day. Whoever said stay at home parents have it easy didn’t have any idea what they were talking about.
On top of that children need adventure, they need to exert themselves and free the energy boiling over inside of them. This usually means, plenty of walks, park hangs, museum visits, etc etc. If your child is anything like mine, you can’t take your eyes off them for more than a few seconds without them doing something to endanger themselves. So, responding to emails or checking social media is usually out of the question. Adult time usually only happens while my child is taking a nap or after they’ve gone to bed at the end of the night. And even then there are a multitude of tasks that weren’t done earlier in the day that I now have to tend to…. i.e., fold that last load of laundry that’s in the dryer or clean the kitchen.
For the record, I am not a stay at home parent, per say. I am a self-employed parent who has the freedom to work from home so I am very hands on with my child. Thank goodness. We save money by not sending our child to daycare because of the flexibility I have with my career. I still consider myself close enough to a stay at home parent as it gets regardless of the perimeters set by my work schedule. I know what it takes and the hours of commitment one has to have to fulfill this role. I applaud any stay at home mom or dad that honors this position as a job, because it is! Job well done folks, you’re doing the Lord’s work and we solute you!
