I am one of "those" women

If I was going to generalize, I'd say I get 3 kinds of looks from people when I am out and about with my 3 kids:

1. The "What a Great Mom" look---this look is accompanied by a smile and/or a chuckle.  My neighbors give this one to me fairly often, like when I took the kids to the gigantic dirt hill in the midst of all the neighborhood construction so N and G could climb it repeatedly as I videotaped.

2. The "How Do YOU Do It?" OR "How Did I Do It?" look---these looks are very similar so I lumped them together.  The first is usually accompanied by the person saying something along the lines of, "Boy, you've got your hands full, don't ya?"  The latter is often given by older women who remember back to the joys and challenges of when they were raising their children.

3. The "I Pity Your Life Choices" look---this look is given by women who may or may not be professionals or childless.  It is a withering kind of look.  I got one of these the other day, and I had a revelation when I saw it.

I used to give that look ALL.THE.TIME.  I used to see women with children, packing them around, wiping their snotty noses, getting after them in the middle of stores, and think, "You poor, poor woman.  What a sad, miserable, unfulfilled life you have."

And, in some ways, this perspective was spot on.  Because tending to young children as a stay-at-home mom on a daily basis is a grind, no doubt about it.  The lack of adult interaction (which is one of the greatest benefits of Facebook....so I can "check-in" with the adult word periodically throughout the day), the monotony of doing the same tasks over and over (diaper changing, mouth wiping, picking up the toys), the financial dependency on my husband.  These are the things that sucketh.

But there are also moments of delight and pride---

• Watching and hearing N read books to G in the foyer.
• Hearing M babble and seeing him make his lunging attempts at crawling.
• Hearing G say as he is playing with a toy car, "I need some more gas, people!"  
• Listening to N ask questions like, "How does a chicken know that an egg she lays is a baby chick or the kind of egg we eat?"
• Feeling a sense of accomplishment at getting everyone fed, dressed and out the door for an activity, like the zoo.
• Knowing that, despite the often burdensome responsibility, my family depends on me to keep this ball of wax from melting into a gooey mess.  

And you have to live it to understand and/or appreciate how it sucks and delights at the same time.  A complexity I still can't get the hang of 6+ years in.

Despite all my tiredness, my worry, my sometimes up-to-HERE with all the headaches of SAHM-dom, I wouldn't want the headache and guilt of working full-time outside the home.  I am willing to make the trade-off and do some small things that keep me semi-sane----blogging, for instance.