Life: The Grass Is Not Always Greener Across the Street

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grass is always greenerAs a working mom, I always have thoughts about spending enough time with my children. However, I have to work, and so does their dad. I feel guilt every day when I drop my children off at their Grandma’s so that she can drop off my daughter at the bus stop and then watch my younger one all day.

In this day and age, many families have two parents who must work to support the family. I often wonder what life would be like not to have to work and to be able to stay home with my children and drop them off and pick them up at the bus stop every day.

While I was growing up, my parents worked. I was a part of the infamous “latch key kid” generation, where I came straight home and let myself into the house every day. I didn’t think anything of it. It was something in life that I was used to.

Now, as a parent, I would love to be able to be home when my kids come home from school. The grass always seems greener across the street. 

At this point, I know that this is something I cannot do. I still long for and wish to be home and not have to deal with the responsibilities of my place of employment and my responsibilities at home.

It looks so easy and peaceful. Wake up, scramble around the house to get the kids ready, send them off to school, and then care for/entertain my younger child while getting some household items checked off before the school bus comes. Then, I’d be able to shuttle my children around to different activities in the afternoon until dinner time.

But then I think about the time that I have to myself. The time I have in the car during my commute to and from work (I currently work in the suburbs, but from time to time, I do use mass transit to commute into the city for meetings). I interact with other adults and not have to censor my language or ask someone to complete a task multiple times. I eat my lunch without one of my children sitting on my lap and pleading with me to have some food when it is the same thing I served them on their own plates, a plate they refused to eat from. The time to go to the restroom alone. The time that I can be in another room without praying that I don’t hear a crash from some toy being thrown.

Life would be different if I stayed at home. Life would be different if I worked from home full time. Being home full-time would mean I would spend a lot of time with my younger child. I would get to see all of his developmental milestones instead of hearing about new things he is doing and saying from my mother-in-law. I would wait with my older child for the bus in the morning and wait for her to get off the bus in the afternoon. I would be able to go to school events during the day. I would be able to participate in more after-school activities. I would be able to cook more meals during the week. I would be able to have more downtime with my children. These are the things that I feel I am missing out on because I work outside the home full time. 

After all these thoughts circling in my head, I have concluded that I do the best I can as a mom every day and give my children all of me every day. That is all that your children want. They want our love. They want our support. They want our comfort. They want our attention. They want to live their lives with their parents. That is it.

Life is what you make for your family. And the grass is not always greener on the other side.

2 COMMENTS

  1. Great article! I think about staying home a lot too. It hit home for me when you said that you wish you could go to their activities- it breaks my heart for my girls to bring home a flyer for a concert they’re in or an awards assembly etc and I can’t go. But at the end of the day we are all doing the best we can. By working, hopefully we are teaching our kids they have to work hard to get good things in life!

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