What surprised you the most?

[eleven]

Let's get this forum going! So here's my question:

What surprised you when you made the transition to staying home with a babe?

Guess I should start...

I haven't showered in 2 1/2 days.... and I feel okay! :LOL : :LOL

I even left the house yesterday having not showered!

Working me would have never imagined doing such a scandalous thing!

So let's hear your revelations!

[crunchy_mama]

um, the lack of showers, leg shaving, hair washing and the fact that it surprisingly doesn't bother me.

All this time I thought I would have and all the projects, still waiting to be done. DS is 8.5 mo and just in the last couple of months am I actually getting some time to do things. I guess I had watched too much tv where the moms are sitting on their butts and the babe is no where to be seen.

[TwinMom]

I've always stayed home with my kids, so there was no transition other than going from a college, party all the time life to parenting life. What surprised me the most, though, was how BORING it can be. I had this idea that my kids would just kind of do what I said, occupy themselves, whatever, and I would be doing my own thing alongside them. hahahaha!! :LOL

What has surprised me lately is that I'm finally enjoying being a SAHM after years of hating it. I'm not sure what changed, maybe it was when we took the girls out of school and began homeschooling a couple years ago. Maybe it was after having a third (and now fourth) child. Whatever it was, I'm grateful that now I don't always feel like I'm doing something I don't want to do. Most days, anyway.

[hlkm2e]

How hard it would be to meet people. Moms all have their own thing going and kids are all on different schedules, so even though you know other SAHM's, you can't neccesarily get together when you want to.

[zinemama]

This was a surprise that happened some years after my kids were born, but: I really don't like playing with them. Getting down on the floor with the legos and lincoln logs bores me silly. I will read to them, cook with them, enter into their imaginative play when they ask - but if the game's got lots of little pieces, or has to be done over and over in a certain way, my skin starts to crawl.

[Cranberry]

I felt very isolated. I found it hard to meet other moms and make new friends for ds and me.

[Wilhemina]

I can remember how surprised I was to not have much in common with my new SAHM "colleagues." I always appreciated the professional relationships and discussions with my teaching colleagues and I guess I somehow thought that SAHMs would discuss their "professions" similiarly. On the few occassions that we tried, we found our views so divergent, and our emotional investment in those views so deep that the discussion ground to a halt.

[AmandaBL]

good question!

I don't miss my "real" job. haha
I'm not embarassed to go get the mail at 4:30 pm. In PJ's.
I also was surprised that I have very little in common with other SAHMs - thank god for MDC!!!

[Llyra]

How messy my house would be. I figured I'd have all this time, I could finally keep it as clean as I always wanted it to be. Silly me!

[UUMom]

How much of a homebody I turned out to be. I used to like to do a million things, go out a lot etc.

I cannot believe how much I like hanging out at home.

I also had the exact opposite situation wrt friendships. I met several nice folks though breastfeeding group who I have been friends with for a while now. One of these folks taught me to knit, and I never saw myself doing *that*. lol The conversations are also more real, about real gut issues.

[abac]

I'm with those pp's who said they have little in common with other SAHMs. And boy, are days ever LONG! I remember those days when there just didn't seem to be enough time in the day...I still don't manage to get anything done, but now it seems to take me a long time to not do anything.

[artgoddess]

I think how much I enjoy it is the surprise for me now. I figured after a year or less I would be wanting to go back to work and "do something productive" DS is now 15 months old, and I have no desire to get a job outside the home. I love being a SAHM, I love that my job is caring for DS and the house (when I can get to it) I want to keep being a SAHM for all my kids, and we aren't even TTC #2 yet.

[Shenjall]

I was suprised by how much it changed me - for the better!

Before I became a sahm, I used to be a control freak. I had to be busy all the time and when I was home after work, I'm ashamed to admit I tried to run my family like I did my office. :

But I learned to slow down and enjoy such simple little things. I'm much happier (and so is my family :LOL ).

I used to be very creative as a child/teen but I lost it somewhere along the way of life. But being at home has re-sparked it and I've never felt so alive again!

of course there are days when I want to hide under my covers .....they're just covered with a duvet cover I made thesedays :LOL

[HelloKitty]

I'm going to repeat others here but definetly the shower thing :LOL , the ability to make new friends to hang out with (I thought it would be easy for some reason), how busy I would be, and totally that my house wouldn't be spotless all the time - I thought with all this time it would be.

I guess I am really surprised at how much I realize going to work before was a break from the hard work at home. I don't miss work AT ALL - I'm very happy to be a SAHM - but I do wish I had relished those cups of coffee by myself more when I had the chance!

[Mummoth]

I was surprised to find out I'm not a slacker. At least not at the important stuff. I always thought I was a big sissy who quit/gave up the second something got hard... but apparently I'm not when it comes to my kids. So, I can forgive myself now for doing the bare minimum in highschool, the 15 or so jobs in less than 5 years, and all the half finished craft projects & night courses. When I have to make a decision about parenting/ health/ finances/ what ever whats easiest isn't a priority.... whats right/best is.

[Eman'smom]

Meeting mom's is hard, like others have said just because we are "home" doesn't mean our schedules fit.

I hate playing with my kids : , I don't enjoy building towers only to have them knocked down, I don't enjoy making playdoh balls only to have them squished. I do like taking them to the zoo, cooking with them, reading to them, that kind of thing.

That I get ZERO time to myself ZERO, I thought when I quit my job I'd establish a nap/quiet time, HA, it's been nearly a year, I think I've had "quiet time" 3 times, the lack of any alone or quiet time is slowly eatting away at my brain, and emotional health

I actually wear more makeup and try to "dress" more, now before I was jeans/tee shirt (unless I was at work) and no makeup ever. I find that since I'm home I don't want to look "sloppy" when I'm out. Besides if I didn't put on lipstick to go to Costco when would I.


I'm also amazed at how fast the days go, without doing hardly anything.

[CerridwenLorelei]

that it took me nine years

to be comfortable being a sahm :
I learned why later though ..

I thought I would just ease into it badda bing badda boom but ...

[SmilingChick]

I thought I would have all this time to read, keep the house spotless, cook gourmet meals every day... :LOL :LOL :LOL :LOL :LOL :LOL :LOL :LOL :LOL :LOL :LOL :LOL

[onlyzombiecat]

I think I was surprised by the attitude of some that a SAHM doesn't do anything because there is no paycheck.
I was surprised that some SAHM's rebell against the term, some dislike being SAHM's and that there are actually different levels of being a SAHM somehow.
I was surprised at how difficult and rewarding it can be all at the same time.

[Autumnschild]

For a person who has been a loner most of my life, I am amazed at how little time I spend alone now. That there are little people who intimately share every aspect of my life. They don't leave me alone for a second...not even on the toilet!

I was surprised at how little I had in common with my previous adult friends who didn't understand my choice to stay home.

After three years of being a SAHM, I'm surprised to find I have NOTHING sexy in my closet.

I was surprised at the emotional ups and downs that come with the decision to stay home and rely on someone else to bring home the income. Giving up that kind of control was hard for me. I guess it still is.

I was and am still surprised at the amount of laundry, dishes and general mess that is generated by a house that is lived in! When we worked, nobody was home to mess anything up.