A Morning in a Life of Stay at Home Mom

I woke up at 5.30 as usual. No, I don’t get up so early to do exercise or yoga. I have to make tiffin ready for my husband who leaves for office at 7.15. I get up, freshen up and start cooking. I check the fridge and get the ingredients as per menu decided last night.  I hate living in the apartments here. They say no noise between 9.30 pm to 8.30 am on weekdays. How am I supposed to grind the coconuts, tomatoes, and onions for curry without creating the noise of a mixer grinder?

Oh, my son got up so early. It’s just 6:45 am. He is supposed to sleep for at least 11 hours at night. All the mom blog says preschoolers should sleep 11-12 hours. He has just slept for 10:45 hrs. today. Why isn’t he sleeping more 🙁

Thank God I am done with cooking breakfast & lunch for him by 7.10 am. I have to hurry up. It will take at least some time for food to cool. “Ohh Baby you want to go to washroom? okay. Come-on I will take you.”

“I am sorry. I couldn’t pack your tiffin. Our baby needed me. But the food is ready. You just had to pack it. I dint plan on making you late for office. I am sorry. I will manage better henceforth.”

And finally, he leaves for office.

Now it was time for brushing my baby’s teeth. I dread this time. He is 3.5 years old. But he hates to brush. I try to make him laugh. I try to entertain him. But no! He doesn’t want to brush. I threaten him. I scold him. But still no! We are in bathroom struggling with brush for 20 minutes. He finally brushes his teeth after I get his Panda and brush Panda’s teeth along with him. Uff ! what a start of the day.

Its already 7:45. If we had done brushing & freshening up by 7.30, we could have gone out for a walk. In this Texan heat, this is the only time in a day when we can walk. But we lost our precious time today again! It’s okay, his preschool starts at 9am. We can reach there by 8.30 and he can play a little. Children should have maximum outdoor times as possible. I feel bad for my child. He gets so little outdoor time. Maybe I can plan better.

I make him eat his breakfast, dress him, pack his tiffin and take him to his preschool at 8.30 am. Thank God, we have enrolled him for 3 hr. classes 4 days a week, this month. From next month we are planning for 2 days a week. He will get enough time to play outdoors and enjoy the fall season.

We reach the playground outside his school at 8.40 am. We have 20 minutes to play. Good!  He goes on to play. While I take this opportunity to phone my mother-in-law and any other relative whom I haven’t phoned recently.  My husband has continued work meetings from 7.30 am to 11 am. So, I have to make calls to his side of the family to convey our wellbeing and to avoid the taunts of not calling them regularly.

Finally dropped my baby at 9:05. Spoke to some fellow moms and came back home. Its already 9:20. If it was not this hot, I would have taken a walk by the trail. But I will have to wait for summer to end.  So, I decide on to doing some simple stretch up exercises which they taught me during prenatal classes when I was pregnant with my son. We stay on first floor, so better I find a part of room which wouldn’t make cracking noise downstairs. I exercise till 10 am. It’s a good thing that I started with this habit since last month. It will help me reduce my PMS issues. It’s a different thing that I miss it when I have continued phone calls from all distant family members. I seriously miss pre-mobile phone era.

Its already 10 am and I haven’t cleared mess from kitchen. I clean my kitchen and sit down looking at messy living room. This mess can be cleared later. But this is the only time I can do something for myself. I take out book from the shelf. “Raising Healthy Humans by …”  I wish I could implements all the practices stated in this book. But I can always try. Oh its 11 am. I have to run to my son’s preschool and help him with bathroom. He wont go to bathroom with any of his teachers. Almost for a month he wet his pants. Finally I gave up and started visiting his preschool at 11am to help him with bathroom. I wish we could affort Montessori where they do not allow parents inside and manage everything by their own.

11:15 I was back home again after running to and fro from prschool. I sat for a while strolling through phone, and thinking about my blog page which I hadn’t updated since long. I work on my blog for 30 mins. And run to get my son back from preschool. Though Preschool ends at 12:00. It takes us 30 min to reach home. We say bye to all our friends. Play with some who have time and energy to play in this hot sun. And finally come back home by 12:30

We rest for a while. And the greatest task of making my baby eat lunch starts. I prepare 2 plates and set the table. He doesn’t want to eat. I wait for few mins. He still doesn’t want to eat food. But now he wants to eat Banana. Its lunchtime, I cant give him Banana. He cries some more. I try some more. Finally I give up. I tell him that I can feed him if he sits at one place and plays with blocks. Finally I feed him more than half of his plate. He is full. He sits with his yogurt and finishes it. Its almost 1:45 when our lunch is finally done.

I look at the dirty dishes in kitchen and plan to wash them later. I take him to bedroom and read him his favorite books. After 3 books I tell him it’s time to have our midday nap. He refuses to sleep. I lie down with him hoping he will also lie down with me and sleep. No, he doesn’t sleep. He simply jumps on the mattress. I try for few more minutes. He clearly needs a nap. He won’t even come closer to me. He is just jumping all over bed. Finally, we both give up and come back in living room to play.