We surely know kids need us all time. But we also know that we should do something for ourselves in order to keep up our confidence in life, like a career. Is it priorities or confusion?
Stay home: The big advantage here is for husbands, because they have their own time to watch the game or browse the Internet; anything they want they can do guilt-free, because they know that Mom will take care of the kids 24/7. But every day, at least once, I think that if I had good career and if I could concentrate on that, make good money, then I could give my kids a better standard of living.
If I go to work, drop the kids off and pick them up, cook, clean, feed, bath time, story time, and put them to sleep, imagine the amount of frustration we might show our kiddos—obviously they don’t know why are we even rushing them.
If we don’t go to work, everything can be done in a slow pace where we can concentrate on kids’ activities and can be more patient toward them. Kids need so much attention. Poor them, they do not have anyone in this world other than their parents to share their feelings and emotions with. And as parents, we are the best people to understand and act accordingly to make them feel better. If you want time for yourself to compose an email or read news or talk on the phone with someone, the only way you can do this is only when they take a nap or by leaving them to watch TV or allow them to play by themselves. But even then they will need your attention as they don’t know how to play themselves for longer period of time; they end up writing on sofa or walls, playing with water by wetting themselves and wetting the sofa. It is surely more work. The stay-at-home mom has more physical work than the working mom. Keeping kids busy is big-time job for stay-at-home mom.
Work: definitely not for money. Have another place to go especially in a country like this, where socializing is so little. It is a change of environment for us from kids. Life would be super busy but I would at least have some time for myself at work.
Some ideas to keep them busy all day at home:
- Put all different kind of beans or cereal and give her different bowls and help her sort them out.
- I bought Ikea plates, cups, and bowls of different colors and I play with them in helping her sort and match same color plate, bowl, and cup.
- Brought alphabet stencils and color with her.
- Coloring books.
- Give her food processor without blade and ask her to fix it.
- Her best game is to play with water.
- I leave her in tub before bath time and she will play splash splash for ten minutes at least and then I give her Easter eggs, plastic ones; I open them up and tell her to fill water in to cup with that egg and after she fills water I will pour it on her.
- Put music on and jump with her.
- Sing rhymes, read stories.
- Got washable paint and bird houses from Walmart and let them color with brushes.
- Puzzles.
- Give them lentils or rice in a bowl and tell them to make castle.
- Bake cookies or cupcakes.
No matter how much ever we try to keep them busy, still they are bored. They make a big mess … so cleaning is also part of playing.
Kids want our attention, period!
