i love my mom

My mom reads my blog. Every day. I just let it go, man. She was horrified the day I mentioned Alex lighting farts. Yup. I don't really cuss, so there's no foul language on my blog, and I don't talk about sex because *I* am too shy about that, so no trouble there. She even comments, which always tickles me. She commented today about Ike & Tina singing "funkier than a mosquito's tweeter." Gotta love the woman!!

Dunno. It's hard. The only relief I recall was the 'play group' which in my neighborhood meant that a few parents got together and sat on the floor in one or another totally child proofed room lined with futons and play equipment checked out from the library, basking in the glow of being near another adult while watching toddlers smear bananas on the floor and saying nothing. It's a long hard slog. And i didn't do it for nearly as long as you. Just started reading your blog so I don't know how young your youngest is, but it won't be long--just keep breathing and hang on.

About moms reading blogs--it always kind of freaks me out--like having a parent show up when you're playing with a friend and suddenly the spell is broken. My mother's gone, so she can't read my blog, but it makes me nervous when I know that other people's mothers are reading and even commenting on their offspring's blogs.

And yet, as a mother, I'd so want to be able to do that.

Put in a movie for the kids, and call your girlfriends! Have someone over to visit you. Don't isolate yourself.

It'll be okay.

i wish my mom read my blog. she's entirely computer illiterate - my grandmother is online more often than my mom, and i'm terrified that she'll find it!

and i love my mom, too.

We need a playdate! What days work for you?

I have days where I look around and realize that I'm sitting in a sea of soothers and sippy cups and there are two diapers affixed to different butts that need to be changed and my 3-foot tall boss is demanding Cheerios, "With no milk and no spoon, Mummy!" And I think to myself, woah...this is my life now?

Those are the days that I change the butts, get the Cheerios and pop in a movie so I can come online and read blogs. Or call up a girlfriend and chat. Or pack my monsters in the van and take 'em to the Y's drop-in centre so Julia can run around and wear herself out on someone else's clock.

If she were here, I think my mom would get a kick out of my blog. I know she'd be very supportive; she always was of anything I wrote. My MIL knows I post stuff on the internet but I don't think she understands the concept of a blog, which is fine by me...I'd shit my pants twice if she found my blog.

I always have a hard time this time of year, too. Cold weather & gloomy skies make it hard to let the kids (and me) burn off a little steam inside. I'm lucky to live in the same town as one of my oldest and dearest friends. Her youngest child just turned 10 (!!!) and she works, so about 2-3 times a month she's able to get free for a lunch date with me. Sometimes we go out, sometimes she comes by my place. It. Really. Helps.

I also call my mom a lot to vent and dish. She had three kids at home under age 5, too, so she's a very good sympathetic ear.

I hope you have someone close to you that you can call or get together with often. Because, at least from my perspective, that lifeline is GOLD.

I always have a hard time this time of year, too. Cold weather & gloomy skies make it hard to let the kids (and me) burn off a little steam inside. I'm lucky to live in the same town as one of my oldest and dearest friends. Her youngest child just turned 10 (!!!) and she works, so about 2-3 times a month she's able to get free for a lunch date with me. Sometimes we go out, sometimes she comes by my place. It. Really. Helps.

I also call my mom a lot to vent and dish. She had three kids at home under age 5, too, so she's a very good sympathetic ear.

I hope you have someone close to you that you can call or get together with often. Because, at least from my perspective, that lifeline is GOLD.

Oops! Didn't mean to double-post! Sorry...

Oh, and that should've been "burn off a little steam OUTSIDE." See what a mess I am? Sweet Jesus...

I can so relate. what I do is 1) rent movies for me to watch at night 2) call girlfriends on the phone 3) call my mom everyday to vent 4) call a babysitter or my mom so that I can go out for a couple of hours every week 5) put the boys in front of the TV when I just need to rest a bit, even if it's for the 4th time in the day. hey, if someone has a better idea that would allow me to free from the guilt, let me know.

hang in there!

If you figure out the solution, can you let me in on the secret? I'm happy to see the sun today but the knowledge that it is very short-lived makes me even more depressed.

Those days are behind me now. I heard somone say once, "WITH CHILDREN, THE DAYS ARE LONG, BUT THE YEARS ARE SHORT".

It's so true, but it doesn't solve the problem. You need to find time to get away. Time that is just yours. What did you do BEFORE kids? Read? Write? Art? Knit? Were you a banker? A CPA? Doctor?

You have to fight to claim part of your brain for yourself. You owe it to yourself and you'll be a better mother for it.

Do you run? Do you have museum school or Mother's Day Out programs where you are? With my last one, I had Mother's Day Out on Wednesday and Friday. I dropped him off and hit the gym, stopped off at the bookstore or the art supply store. Went home and showered. Read books and worked on my reviews of said books. When I went to pick him up I felt like a human being...and not ONLY a mother. I was READY to see him, because the spaces for me had been attended to.

I want you to find that for yourself. It's so very important.

well said wordgirl...

(now feeling melancholy) I rode horses. Every day. Usually worked one, then another. Felt...accomplished. I created art. I SOLD it, even. These are things I haven't done post-marriage, much less post-baby. And I didn't really even see them go. :-(