What has surprised me about being a SAHM:
How lonely I get for other women. I am sincerely glad for the internet and MDc. It helps fill a serious void. I also now understand why many women go back to work.
How, when I did meet up with other women( park, moms club, etc.) we would all have such different ideas of what was right or wrong in parenting, and how that can make it really hard to be social later on !
How angry I would get with my husband. He seems to spend most of his time with one hand on the doorknob, and never seems to get that just because I am home does not mean everything is going to be peaches and cream and rainbows 24/7. Moms get grouchy, moms have bad days, moms yell, moms want alone time, moms are HUMAN ! The idea that he will walk through the door, the house will be spotless, the kids clean and pleassant and quiet, the steaming hot meal ont he table, and me in clean clothes with a smile planted accross my face ...thats TV, not real life. We don't live on TV.
How hard it can be, some days, to fill all those empty hours. When it is raining outside for the 20th day in a row, and it is cold, and we can't play outside, and I have said " No more tv for now." and I have mounds of laundry to do and kids who don't know what to do with themselves...running away form home for a couple hours to the library or the store gets very tempting.
I also am sad to say, I hate playing as well. My imagination is not what it was when I was 4 years old myself, and so..I just can't play anymore. I get mad when they break my lego house. I don't like having my towers knocked over either..I get tired of constantly making snakes and snails and bird nests and baskets and unicorns out of play doh. I don't want to pretend to eat anymore pretend food, and I just really Do want to read MY OWN books sometimes-dang it !
For the most part, I think I moved into SAHM hood pretty smoothly. I had been a SAHW before that, and so I had gotten out of hte groove of going to work and getting dressed up and being aorund other people( something I never used to enjoy anyway) but there are certain things that really hit me hard.
Right now, as well, the amount of time I spend in a car, driving from one place to another, is greatly bugging me.How in the hell am I supposed to get anything done at home if I am gone half the day, and wiped out when I get back ?
at the mess and how difficult it is to keep up some days... after growing up the oldest of 7, i assumed that picking up after *only* two would be a snap. oh, the foolishness of youth! :LOL i also thought that i'd have way more personal time... i find i spend those few precious naptime hours scurrying around trying to make things tidy and sometimes napping myself! 
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