Early this morning, Stay at Home Moms (I shall refer to us as sahms from this point forward) all across the country, and in many other parts of the free world, watched the television--and rewound their Tivos several times until they were sure that they had heard the statements correctly--in complete SHOCK AND AWE. No, they were not witnessing a terror attack or someone being attacked by marine life. They were watching the promo for today's Dr. Phil show. The topic of the day was described in a way similar to this: "Tune in at 5pm et to see why most sahms have 20-40 hours per week of undiscovered free time"!
Well, obviously it didn't take long for this to filter through the FB statuses of many of my friends, thus stirring up a great deal of heated discussions. One friend of a friend stated that perhaps the great Dr. P will be analyzing our sleeping patterns, because she very rarely experiences "free time" unless she is sleeping. To that, here is my response, "
I don't even get that much sleep every week! My challenge to the people who own this theory is to trade places with me (sahm) for one day. MY leisure time comes while driving my minivan. I have to have my eyes off of the children and on the road; I cannot answer the cell, for fear of an accident; I have to have both hands on the wheel, thus I ... See Morecannot open drinks, check homework, build a geography project, read the monthly required novel (that I already read when I was in Middle School). I cannot swat legs or point fingers. It is sheer bliss....That is why I believe that those who get the most routine and consistent leisure time are commuters in Atlanta or other large metro cities. Their commutes yield AT LEAST 1 hour per day of vehicular solitude. The said vehicles are usually NOT mini vans, but nice, goldfish-free shiny sedans that do not feature The Wiggles, Hannah, Jonas, Justin Bieber, or any other "cute boy singer" of the week on their sound systems. SO, whoever says that moms have "free time" needs to head to the closest carpool line, sport "of the week" practice, piano lesson, ballet or gymnastic class to get some real-world definitions of LEISURE TIME....The last time that I took a bubble bath, I was accompanied by at least one child, one cat, and several cell calls and texts, only to get out of the tub to be greeted by 16 emails, all from people wanting something from me..the day before, of course."
All that being said, it won't come as a surprise to anyone to know that I didn't have a chance to sit down to watch this episode. I haven't had 20-40 hours a week of free time since I was a tween.
Well, obviously it didn't take long for this to filter through the FB statuses of many of my friends, thus stirring up a great deal of heated discussions. One friend of a friend stated that perhaps the great Dr. P will be analyzing our sleeping patterns, because she very rarely experiences "free time" unless she is sleeping. To that, here is my response, "
I don't even get that much sleep every week! My challenge to the people who own this theory is to trade places with me (sahm) for one day. MY leisure time comes while driving my minivan. I have to have my eyes off of the children and on the road; I cannot answer the cell, for fear of an accident; I have to have both hands on the wheel, thus I ... See Morecannot open drinks, check homework, build a geography project, read the monthly required novel (that I already read when I was in Middle School). I cannot swat legs or point fingers. It is sheer bliss....That is why I believe that those who get the most routine and consistent leisure time are commuters in Atlanta or other large metro cities. Their commutes yield AT LEAST 1 hour per day of vehicular solitude. The said vehicles are usually NOT mini vans, but nice, goldfish-free shiny sedans that do not feature The Wiggles, Hannah, Jonas, Justin Bieber, or any other "cute boy singer" of the week on their sound systems. SO, whoever says that moms have "free time" needs to head to the closest carpool line, sport "of the week" practice, piano lesson, ballet or gymnastic class to get some real-world definitions of LEISURE TIME....The last time that I took a bubble bath, I was accompanied by at least one child, one cat, and several cell calls and texts, only to get out of the tub to be greeted by 16 emails, all from people wanting something from me..the day before, of course."
All that being said, it won't come as a surprise to anyone to know that I didn't have a chance to sit down to watch this episode. I haven't had 20-40 hours a week of free time since I was a tween.
No comments:
Post a Comment