Article 2: Diaries of a Haus Frau - Why Stay Home?

Article from my "Diaries of a Haus Frau" where I take a moment out of my day of raising young kids in today's over protective, really quiet silly, world.

This one is from a couple of years ago when I had the ability to stay home full time....

I know I’m not unique in being a stay at home mum who devotes my time to the care of young children, attempting to keep a clean house, tidy garden and books balanced.

Instead of being insulted by belonging to the employment status of “Home Duties”, I revel in the experience of being there to raise my 3 children aged 5 and under (despite any complaining you may hear, of course). It’s an experience you can’t get anywhere else, unless you happen to work collectively as a cleaner, zoo keeper, gardener, accountant, personal assistance, medical receptionist, taxi driver, not so secret shopper, peace keeper, laundry attendant (to name a few) each day. It’s a 24/7 job that doesn’t end just because the “apples of your eye” are asleep at night. There’s still cleaning, mending, sorting and, as I’m obviously a sucker for punishment, studying.

An example of the joy of parenting is that I co-sleep with our 14 month old. How amazing is it that someone so small can take up so much of a king sized bed that he’s meant to be sharing with myself and hubby? I also still breastfeed. So, combining these two, I’m pretty much an open bar all night and tend to get maybe 2 hours solid sleep…. Until my husband’s alarm clock goes off at 5:30am, at which time I seem to fall into a heavy sleep until greatly annoyed by my alarm clock going off at 6:30am.

Okay, so maybe a better example is trying not to interrupt my 5 and 3 year old girls breakfast conversations as they interpret their mummy’s anatomy and physiology studies over toast. Recently it was the correct term for your shoulder blade; one felt it was the scapula, the other the clavicle. Followed by whether fingers were metacarpals and toes were metatarsals, or visa versa. Where the phalanges came into it and, most importantly, could you REALLY lick your own elbow? Or was assistance from a sibling just as good?

There’s always the fine line of what exactly the child is doing. My 5 year old, when about 3, was asked to not jump on the bed. Her sage reply was that she wasn’t jumping on the bed, but on the doona. It just happened to be ON the bed at the time, which was a mere coincidence. Yes, we’re hoping she goes to law school too.

House cleaning with ones so young is another dream come true. That is, of course, if my sarcasm font is working properly. I’m just thankful the 5 year old spends all day at school as, despite the ordeal of getting everyone together for the school runs, it does make a difference in the in-between time at home. For instance, two small children play well together. Three small children tend to result in two ganging up, or totally ignoring, the one. To keep it fair, they tend to take turns which this is. If the older two get too bored, they can use their younger brother as a toy and see exactly what they can do to him before he gives the game away and screams for mummy.

Ways I’ve learnt to adapt my cleaning methods include: strapping the 14 month old into his high chair so I can empty and load the dishwasher. This is because we have a dishwasher that sits in the middle of our kitchen and anytime someone decides to climb in and sit on the open lid, it tends to want to fall on top of him. And any dishes piled on top, wish to join him on the floor. When we can afford the kitchen renovation, this issue will be gone. I’d say he’ll be in high school by then and can do the dishes himself!

Another is doing the ironing from inside our hexagonal playpen. I mean, what is the point of a playpen? To keep the baby away from things you don’t want them to touch, right? Having had three children, I learnt early that it’s best if I set up my ironing inside the pen and let the children free range around me. Though the day they learn how to switch the iron on and off at the power point is the day you tend to wonder whether you applaud them for learning something new, scream from the sheer frustration, or say “fair enough, I needed a cuppa anyhow”.

Being a stay at home mum: Never a dull moment!