Words of Wisdom

A friend posted a great advice columnist's article today on why people with kids don't have any time. I'll share parts of it, but you should read the whole article here. Basically a woman is griping that she doesn't get why her friend with kids doesn't have time for her anymore. She says that she's at work 9 hours a day, does the grocery shopping, laundry and she still has time, so why doesn't her friend? The woman even has the gall to accuse her friend of lying about how busy she is just to have time to herself or trying to make her life seem harder so she gets sympathy. The columnist, since she can't reach out and smack the woman upside the head, proceeds to give it to her that SAHM's don't just sit around all day long. Here is part of her reply:

"When you have young kids, your typical day is: constant attention, from getting them out of bed, fed, clean, dressed; to keeping them out of harm's way; to answering their coos, cries, questions; to having two arms and carrying one kid, one set of car keys, and supplies for even the quickest trips; to keeping them from unshelving books at the library; to enforcing rest times; to staying one step ahead of them lest they get too hungry, tired or bored, any one of which produces checkout-line screaming.
"It's needing 45 minutes to do what takes others 15. It's resisting constant temptation to seek short-term relief at everyone's long-term expense. It's doing all this while concurrently teaching virtually everything -- language, manners, safety, resourcefulness, discipline, curiosity, creativity. Empathy. Everything."
Amen, sister.