What I Do

I used to wake in the morning, replete from seven hours of blissful sleep, hop in the shower, get dressed, go to work, see friends or do something social, come home and go to sleep. I also fed myself and bought my own clothes.

Now, I wake up to one or more of three people screaming. I stagger blindly to get to them. I seek to ascertain the source of the screaming. If it's because they have defecated on themselves, I clean them up, if it's because they're thirsty, I give them something to drink. If it's because they wanted to door open four inches and it's only open two, I make the correction.

If it's morning, I change them out of their night clothes and help them choose clothes for the day. I put all their clothes on them, from undergarments to shoes. I do three changes in a row, but there's no time for a little snooze after that. There's also no time for me to get dressed, and sometimes no time to brush my teeth. The people I care for are now starving.

I seek to stop them from starving by attempting to put food in their mouths. Most of it ends up on the floor (sometimes pre-chewed). While I am putting food into their mouths, I am at the same time trying to pack two lunches, which I will also see again, uneaten or sometimes with one bite removed (and presumably spit out at school). I pack the lunches because the teacher seems to think that these people eat things. Even though I constantly buy food for these people, I actually never see them eat it, and I am always running out of it. I never seem to have any extra in the fridge or cupboard. (Probably because it's all on the floor).

Big Life, Little Life

Did you used to be a person who went to work every day to a challenging and exciting job? Did you go to graduate school or train for an off-the-beaten-track career? Did you find it fulfilling and rigorous? Did you work up to a position of responsibility and management?

Then, did you marry and have children and stay home with them, either for a period of time, or part-time or forever?

If so, we are talking to you. We want to study and celebrate the journey of women who choose motherhood after achieving a big career. The journey of putting away millions of dollars of supplies to the journey of putting away the cereal. We want to talk about how our careers will help us raise our children.

In a regular feature, we want to invite contributors to add to our list of "Things Motherhood Made Me Say."