Staying Home is Boring

Nothing puts me on the defensive faster than being asked, "Don't you get bored?"

My mind starts to race as I think: Bored?!? Are you out of your mind, of course not!!! Making food, serving food, picking up food, cleaning sticky hands and faces, wiping down furniture, countertops, floors, and little butts, doing loads of laundry, folding and putting away that laundry, playing blocks/farm animals/trucks/reading books/etc., changing diapers and clothes...

That's all before 9:00 am.

But lately I've been thinking about the question, and, well...

I am bored.

Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of things to do. I definitely keep busy. There's a pretty relentless cycle of chores and routine that's required to keep a household with three children under five running. But it’s a fairly mind-numbing list of things to be doing each day. Loading and unloading the dishwasher isn't exactly my jam. And there's a difference between being busy and being bored.

To be fair, I think the "don't you get bored?" question-askers are really trying to ask a different one: "What do you do all day?" Assuming I can’t possibly find enough to keep me occupied all day long as a stay-at-home mom. And that's an entirely different question. I could give a run-down of a typical day's schedule and still feel like it wouldn't truly encapsulate what on earth I spend my time doing.

Read the rest over on the Twin Cities Moms Blog.