Really, so much relies on how women describe themselves as SAHM, WAHM, or WOHM that the entire alphabet seems reduced to about 4 letters.

And, as is the problem with other four-letter words, these acronyms are dirty. Imagine the shame of committed SAHM who finds that she has to take in a few neighbourhood kids as an after-school daycare provider in order to pay emergency dental fees? Imagine the WOHM who, after years of double-duty, is handed a pink slip and sent home to the ever-present piles of laundry and bills unable to afford the daycare costs to enable her job search? Is she now in SAHM-land?

No, these acronyms are just not good enough.

So, I have developed a new one.

Mine is not only more accurate, although it really does describe the lives of all mothers, but mine also avoids the swear-word connotations by having five letters instead of four. Finally, when pronounced aloud, mine sounds like a comic book kiss: SMWAT!

Yes, that’s SMWAT for Some Mothers Work All the Time.

So say it often,

say it loud.

I’m a SMWAT

and I’m proud.

Post from: Babylune

Acronyms aside, according to an article in the Irish Independent, this need not be the case. In How to Be a Stay at Home Mom… and Keep Fit, writer Sue Leonard interviewed a doctors, a stay at home mother, and a Weight Watchers’ leader. The quotes reinforce that people use staying at home, working, living alone and a number of other excuses factors to explain their weight-gain or falling fitness levels.

From the article, I gleaned the following tips to help all new mothers lose the baby weight:

1. Don’t eat the kids’ leftovers. I hate to see food wasted, but I really don’t need the cold pasta my little boy licked and then rejected.

2. Set a schedule for the whole family to eat by. Adjust snack times and meal times so that everyone eats together. If something between those times is really necessary, limit it to fresh, raw fruits and veg.

3. See your doctor regularly for preventative health care. Catch a little problem before it becomes a big problem.

Post from: Babylune

Does this news make anyone feel better?

Post from: Babylune

My friend Anne is the modern amazon. I’ve thought of her in legendary terms ever since her brother told me she was back at work a week after the birth of her third child by Cesarian section.

Her maternity leave was actually only four days long.
It got me thinking about the contemporary equivalent of our mother-ancestors who lay down in the field, gave birth, strapped the babies to their backs and got back to work.

Anne’s tale of her rapid return to work is not a tale of an abandoned infant. In a recent email she told me about taking the baby to work every day for three months.

“I figure that I was holding the baby for 20 hours out of 24 during weekdays,” she wrote. The other 4 hours were spent in travel to/from the office and just plain down time.”

Anne, clearly, is not alone among new mothers. Who among us has not heard the seductive call of the desk even while our – ahem – tender parts are still too tender from giving birth to let us sit there comfortably.

I personally don’t remember being in a hurry to get back to work after my first child was born, but that was when everything related to motherhood was new. Since then, the routines of family life has enabled all of us to thrive intellectually, physically and even spiritually. It just made sense to me, after the birth of my second child almost five months ago, to get back to that routine. Which, for me, includes working.

Technology has certainly played it’s role too. Not only are our ideas of workplace and working hours more flexible because of the tools we use, but we’ve become dependent on staying in touch and online.

That dependence is evident even when we’re on vacation as Anne noticed while taking some time out in March. “Most of the parents were multitasking,” she noted, “looking after their kids in the pool while using their Blackberries. It’s not gender-specific either, both moms and dads couldn’t let go.”

I can’t say I’ve ever found letting go easy myself. During my unexpected hospital stays both after giving birth and when the baby was re-hospitalized for jaundice, I missed the other members of the family, my own bed and my office. In that order.

If you’re working, do you think you’re missing out at home and if you’re at home, do you feel you’re missing out at work? Do any of you bring your babies to work?

Post from: Babylune

I often think the only thing mothers have in common is that we’re all women with children. That’s probably why it doesn’t take long to embroil a new mother in a passionate argument. The opportunity to stake out a side and defend it ferociously governs discussions about routine male circumcision, breastfeeding, sleep training, working in or outside the home, types of childcare and potty training methods, among other parenting topics.

There are as many definitions of motherhood as there are mothers. What is missing is respect for other women’s definitions of what motherhood means. A lot of energy is being wasted by arguing about what, exactly, is the “best” for children. Energy that, if re-directed, could actually be spent making a society that is friendly to mothers and children. Claiming and defending the moral highground is an exhausting and eternal struggle.
Re-directing wasted energy is the goal of Mothers Ought to Have Equal Rights. The American organization is dedicated to fighting the media-hyped divisions between women with children. The group hopes to foster inclusion and cooperation on issues that affect our children everywhere. Visit the site to find out how to support their campaign for a “ceasefire in the mommy wars.”

Post from: Babylune