What DO you do all day?

I was recently asked this question. This question makes me laugh for two reasons, first you would never think it appropriate to ask a doctor, lawyer, teacher, etc what they do all day so why is it appropriate to ask me, a stay-at-home parent. Secondly, if you are dumb enough to ask me this you have never spent any time with children. Now don't get me wrong, I love that I am lucky enough to be able to stay home with my kids, but this job is not all relaxing play dates and smiles.

So for those of you out there who are really confused as to the ways that stay-at-home parents fill what must be their ample free time here you go, a peek into a day in my life.

This morning I got up at 5:45 am to swim. This makes R slightly grumpy because I tend to wake him up too, being quiet has never been one of my strong suits, but the only guaranteed time alone to work out I have is when everyone else is sleeping.

After coming home from swimming I made breakfast. Now, normally I wouldn't do this but I was craving bacon and eggs and there is no way I could get around making it for everyone. The smell of bacon woke my entire family and we all tucked in to a big breakfast. After breakfast I filled the dishwasher, got the kids dressed, cleaned myself up, and sorted a pile of laundry so huge that R asked me if I was trying to build a ski jump with all of our dirty clothes. A dirty look was required for that comment.

It is now 8:30, time to go to Target. Both A and J have parties this weekend that require presents. April must be birthday party season because I feel as if we are going to have to take out a second mortgage on the house to pay for all of the presents! The highlights of Target were J having a fit because she couldn't ride in a cart, S pulling a Houdini act and getting out of his seat belt and the cart, A going a number 2 in the Target bathroom, me attempting to buy a treat only to have J complaining that she didn't like what I was buying (I knew she did, but had to convince her. She was in quite the mood this morning.) and finally picking out two perfectly wonderful presents. The "scary mom/you better behave" voice was only pulled out a few times.

On to the grocery store. Wednesday is double coupon day, so I have to go today. Yep, I'm cheap like that. I'm such a dork, I almost get a high off of saving a ton of money with coupons.

I had to resort to the scary mom voice right away to keep A and S from killing each other in the car cart, luckily it seemed to work. As we were turning into the frozen foods, J knocked over an entire spice display her cart. (she likes to use the little carts at the store, it makes her feel big.) God bless the girl, she and I cleaned everything up with out any complaints. I'm hoping the embarrassment will remind her to pay attention next time. We escaped the store with only a few minor set backs, saved around fifty dollars and only forgot the eggs, whoohoo! Unfortunately the lack of eggs puts a cramp in my cookie making plans for this afternoon but oh well.

The time is 10:45 and our next stop is the library. Going to the library is partly my fault, I desperately needed to return some overdue books. We were in and out of there fairly quickly. We all picked out books and the only issue we had was S throwing a fit because he didn't want to leave. I had to play the "we are leaving without you" game to get him to stop crying and come. A didn't seem to realize that I wasn't actually going to leave with out S and proceeded to get very upset. With two crying kids I'm sure I looked like the mother of the year. The librarians must have been happy to see our backs.

Three some what calm kids later, it is amazing what a little Hannah Montana music can do, and we are back home for lunch. I've fed the kids and attempting to fold my laundry ski jump. Unfortunately blogging/procrastinating seemed much more interesting.

So there you have it, all you curious people, that is what I do all day. Next time you think to ask a parent what exactly they do all day, don't. The question is rude and demeaning, besides that was just my morning you don't want to hear about my afternoon!