About this whole Mommy business

So one of my favorite blogs to read is Rants From Mommyland. Why? Because they make me snarf my coffee just about everyday. They are just. that. funny.  So Lydia's last piece was about those things that we, especially us "Professional" mommies, say all the time.  "Professional", in this instance, means,"No. I don't do anything else. I just hang out here with these crazy people. All. mur.ther.fur.kin'. day." As usual, I laughed so hard that I nearly needed emergency medical care.  Then I scrolled through the comments. And I felt a little down.

One woman said that after reading the things we endlessly repeat as we "raise and nurture" our little crumbsnatchers, she would just stay on her birth control. So I just want to clarify. Not like she'll see my humble little blog, but I'll feel better.

My kids make me nuts. I walk through the house flushing toilets, turning off lights and breaking up arguments with idle threats of military school and groundings into adulthood.  I do, on average, 8 loads of laundry a week. (yeah, yeah. That's what I get for having 6 kids) I joke about drinking a lot of wine. Sometimes I really do.

But my kids are probably the most important and awesome things I have made (done? accomplished?) in my life.

Especially as they get older (#1 is THIRTEEN :P ), I see them becoming fabulous people. I probably have very little to do with that.  But it is awesome none the less. Watching them find their path in the world and accomplish things (sometimes with our help, but more and more without) is worth all the flushes and stinky socks under the couch. And I am not just saying that because I jumped off the career track and grad school and all that to be the mom.

Sharing the challenges of Mommyhood is so needed, because we don't live in communities like back in the day.  I got a taste of it when we lived in West Point. All the moms hung out in the front yard with the kids all day (except in the snow. Brrrrr). Kids played. Moms chatted. We supported each other. And on nice days, our husbands would come home to happy kids (still playing outside) and moms in lawn chairs drinking margaritas. (But probably not dinner. We'd been outside all day, after all.) 

Here in the burbs, it just doesn't happen like that. So there are virtual communities to share our angst and the utter lunacy that often accompanies parenthood. The trouble is, the childless women who come and read don't see the great parts. They will hear about that time my daughter COVERED her face and hair in Desitin, but not about how she gave me a big (drooly) kiss when I gave her a freshly-filled juice cup. And about the "artwork" on my walls, but not the drawings I hang on my fridge.

So, dear currently-childless lady who is turned off by our shared insanity, fear not.

Mommyhood is SO MUCH MORE than the toilet-flushing, shoe-tying, and peace-keeping that we whine talk about. But you will definitely want to stock up on those Magic Eraser things.