Being a stay-at-home mom is incredibly difficult, not only because it's often a thankless job without pay or vacation days, but also because spouses don't always realize that while they're at full-time jobs, you're working a never-ending one as well. Even if your partner doesn't wonder "what you've done all day" or expect you to have a gourmet meal waiting when he or she gets home, he or she might walk in feeling exhausted from work and not remember that you're just as tired — if not more — from carrying the invisible load at home. After one mom's husband called home from work with the news that he was leaving on a spontaneous boys' weekend, the woman was pissed off and turned to a fellow mom friend to vent her frustration.
Her pal, Constance Hall, is a mom and blogger, and she tried to look at the situation from both sides before writing a post on Facebook that nails just how upsetting this husband's "surprise" weekend away is.
Constance explained that the only "weekend" stay-at-home parents get is when the other parent walks through the door at night. "You are the weekend, you are the break," she wrote. "Just knowing that [we're] not going to be the only one getting food down the kids' throats or not the only one to buckle in and buckle out every kid makes it so much easier."
"What those who don't stay at home with their kids don't realize is that [the] woman (or man) who stays at home makes huge sacrifices," she wrote. "They don't love every minute of the relentless house work. Going to the park alone with just our kids is not a 'blessing,' it's hard f*cking work. And no matter how hard they work, the same amount of work is presented to them the following day."
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Constance wants working spouses to remember that both the kids and the woman or man that you love is happier when you're home, and they are both counting on your support. "So the next time you want to spontaneously go away on a boys weekend, and I'm not saying never have spontaneity, but I want you to understand why your partner may feel let down," she wrote. "Imagine if you worked five days and just before you clocked off your partner called you and said, 'By the way you don't get a weekend this week, you're working all the way through.'"
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You'd most likely be pissed too, and even some serious overtime compensation might not even be enough to make up for it. "And at the end of the day, if somebody actually wants you home with them? Then you are already winning at life," Constance added.
