A Gift for Mom! 🤍

In case you were wondering why working moms are stressed, here are 10 reasons working mamas are STRESSED the freak out: 

1. We are late to mostly everything.

Especially work. You can set 15 alarms, lay out clothes the night before and meal prep until the good Lord comes back, but inevitably there will be a meltdown or someone will have to poop and next thing you know, you are running 20 minutes behind speeding down the highway answering questions about where babies come from and why the earth is round.

2. We are tired.

Most nights we come home from work already exhausted with several more hours of dinner/dishes/homework/bath/bedtime routine. Not to mention the fact that one kid will take 45 minutes to fall asleep while the other will wake up 16 times in the night.

RELATED: I’m an Exhausted Working Mom and I’m Trying Harder Than You Know

3. We have to do laundry.

Laundry. Is. Our. ENEMY. I folded seven loads this weekend and I still have more all because I chose to skip last weekend. It is the devil and sometimes I think about just starting a bonfire in the backyard with all the clothes and just starting fresh. 

4. We are hungry.

We are expected to feed our children nutritious meals when there are some days I don’t even get breakfast or lunch (mostly my fault). And don’t get me started on all the Pinterest lunches I’ve packed for my kids only for them to take one bite. Every time we do actually sit down to eat someone needs more of something and we must get up. Repeat this x20 and you’ve got an average dinner in our home. 

5. We aren’t allowed to be sick.

Sick days are never really used for ourselves because we never really know when the stomach bug could wipe out our entire house. Who is the one that’s gonna clean up the puke? **points to self**

6. We have to drive our kids everywhere.

We have to be an Uber driver for small humans that mostly cry when they are buckled up and they don’t tip very well. Extracurricular activities are amazing and do wonderful things for our children but some days, the money, the practice, and the late nights are just too much for the tiny humans and exhausted mom.

7. We must participate in all the things.

Classroom parties/field trips are wonderful and are amazing memories made with our children. But working 40+ hours a week means I sometimes can’t bake two dozen cupcakes or cancel an important meeting to go to a pumpkin patch. And the mom guilt is real! My heart wants to volunteer for all the things . . . but have you seen my laundry room?! Just sayin’. 

8. We must look pretty.

Working moms, well women, in general, are expected to look put together. Ever heard of contouring and fake lashes? Yup, that’s a thing . . . that women do . . . every day . . . who in the holy heck has time for this?!

9. We must keep a clean house.

The house . . . well, it will never be clean. Like . . . never. You can try with all you might for your house to look like a Chip and Joanna Gaines farmhouse chic Pinterest billboard but just as you are about to pack the kids up for school drop-off, right when you have 20,000 things in your hand, your kid will spill his orange juice or the dog with take a crap on your couch. It happens.

10. We have to work with the guilt that our children spend more time with others than with us.

We are expected to work like we don’t have children and raise children like we don’t have careers. We are ALWAYS torn between excelling in our careers or rocking it as moms. The balance between the two seems non-existent. Sometimes we roll up to work while drying our tears and fighting the urge to go snatch our babies up and take them home to cuddle forever. Sometimes we roll up to the school drop-off line and practically push our children out of the car because we just need two seconds of silence before we get to work.

RELATED: To the Working Mom When All You Feel is Guilt

However, at the end of the day, when we finally lie down, we thank the Lord above for this beautifully chaotic life we have and pray for extra grace for the next day . . . because we know we are gonna need it.

Now to go mop the floors and do more laundry!

Disclaimer: I was interrupted four times while trying to post this . . . and it’s after 10 p.m. 

This post appeared on the author’s Facebook page

Being a working mom is like running a never-ending marathon. We love the practical strategies in Stretched Too Thin for empowering working moms to get the most out of life. Don’t have time to sit and read? Listen to it on Audible during your commute.

Stretched Too Thin: How Working Moms Can Lose the Guilt, Work Smarter, and Thrive by [Turner, Jessica N.]

 

Recommendations in this post contain affiliate links. Her View From Home may receive a small commission if you choose to purchase.

So God Made a Grandmother book by Leslie Means

If you liked this, you'll love our book, SO GOD MADE A GRANDMA

Order Now!

Brandie Kendrick

Brandie Kendrick is the author behind Pickled Proverbs. She holds a Master’s Degree in Early Childhood Development and several certifications in human development. She puts her graduate degree to good use working 40+ hours a week as an Early Interventionist. Her evenings are spent chasing her free spirited daughters or tackling mountains of laundry. After bedtime she can be found writing about the hilarious truths of motherhood and raising young children. For more of her work check out www.pickledproverbs.com

These Moms on the Sidelines Became My People

In: Motherhood
Moms with arms around each other watching baseball

Spending hours on end on a ballfield on Mother’s Day may not sound ideal to most, but the ones who get it know that it’s about so much more than watching young kids play ball. It’s about the instant bonds you make with families who end up becoming like your own family. It’s being surrounded by people who cheer for your kid louder than you do yourself. It’s about being lucky enough to have a pack of moms who will care for your child in your absence and send you pics and videos of what you are missing when you...

Keep Reading

I Wanted Experts to Fix My Child with ADHD. Instead, They Changed Me.

In: Motherhood
Little boy sitting at table talking to adult

I thought the experts were going to fix my child. I didn’t say that out loud. But it was there…quiet, desperate, sitting underneath every question I asked. If I just found the right strategy… If I just understood ADHD well enough… If I just listened hard enough… Maybe the meltdowns would stop. Maybe the chaos would settle. Maybe I would finally feel like I knew what I was doing. So I started asking questions. Over the past year, I’ve had the opportunity to interview ADHD experts (clinicians, researchers, specialists) through my podcast. And I showed up to every conversation like...

Keep Reading

Parenting a Child with a Disability Is Holy Ground

In: Motherhood
Child hugging mother

Some moments in motherhood stay with you. First steps. Preschool graduation. A first dance recital. And then there are harder times. The ones that do not make it into photo albums. The moments when the world feels too big and your child feels painfully misunderstood. When you are parenting a child with a disability, those moments tend to find you more often. This day should have felt like a win. My son had just met a goal in therapy. We walked out of his OT’s office smiling, carrying a page full of lopsided circles that had never looked more perfect...

Keep Reading

I Came Home With a Baby—and Lost Myself

In: Motherhood
Mother holding baby looking sad

I don’t think people truly believe me when I say I came back from the depths of hell after having my son. Birth is often portrayed as pure bliss. The moment a mother holds her baby and instantly falls in love. Life quickly returns to normal. Even in real life, new moms can look like they’ve settled into motherhood with ease. But what no one talks about is the ugly, incredibly hard side of it. Not every mom experiences postpartum depression, anxiety, or OCD. For some, it really is bliss. But for many of us, it becomes a fight for...

Keep Reading

He Doesn’t Always Need Me Anymore and I’m Not Sure How To Feel About It

In: Motherhood
Little boy playing with toys on the floor alone

There is a moment nobody warns you about. Not the sleepless nights. Not the feeding schedules. Not the endless cycle of laundry and worry that comes with keeping a tiny human alive. Those parts everyone mentions. The part nobody mentions is the moment you realize your child has started becoming his own person. And you are standing there watching it happen, equal parts proud and completely unprepared. My son is two years old. And lately he has been leaving the room. Not in a concerning way. In a he has somewhere to be kind of way. He will be in...

Keep Reading

We Keep Calling Her Confident, But She Doesn’t Trust Herself

In: Motherhood
Smiling young woman

I remember the exact moment it hit me. I was talking to a young girl, the kind everyone praises. She was polite, well spoken, respectful. The kind of girl people point to and say, “She’s so confident.” So I asked her a question I knew would reveal more than her smile ever could: “What do you do when something doesn’t feel right?” She froze. Not in a dramatic way, but in a quiet, almost invisible way. She looked down, shifted her weight, then looked back up at me, searching my face like the answer might be written there. Because she...

Keep Reading

I Knew Something Was Wrong, But No One Listened—And It Almost Cost Me My Daughter

In: Motherhood
Woman holding baby's head in hands

After the traumatic birth of my daughter, I searched for others who had experienced vasa previa, but most of what I found were support groups for stillbirth. It’s easy to understand why; vasa previa is one of the most preventable causes of stillbirth, and yet most people, including most pregnant women, have never heard of it. My daughter is almost three years old, and I still carry a complicated guilt about that: why did we get to be the lucky ones? I want to share my story—not to frighten you, but because awareness is the only thing that saves lives...

Keep Reading

I Finally Admitted I Didn’t Want To Be a SAHM Anymore

In: Motherhood
Mother and child silhouette

For most of my life, I believed becoming a stay-at-home mom wasn’t just a choice, it was the ultimate goal. The kind of life a “good” woman was meant to want. The kind of life that meant you were doing things right. I grew up surrounded by that message. In conservative spaces, in church circles, in subtle conversations about what a “real” mother looked like. Women who stayed home were praised. Women who didn’t were quietly questioned. I learned, without ever being directly told, that a mother’s highest purpose was to center her entire world around her children and her...

Keep Reading

I’m Not Really Sure How To Do This Teenager Thing

In: Motherhood, Teen
Teenager on phone

I was not prepared to be a mother of teenagers. Sure, I was warned by other parents about the difficult journey I was about to embark on, but I did not expect it to be this challenging. I remember these two sweet, innocent children who wanted to be with me all the time. Now they barely give me the time of day. How did we get here? Like many parents, we long to have that child who once, a long time ago, called us Mommy and Daddy and begged us to read them another story. Where are those kids I...

Keep Reading

Why Don’t We Talk About Jonah’s Mother?

In: Faith, Living, Motherhood
Woman standing over water

Praying for My Son Send a storm to stop him; Let his friends throw him out. May he drop to the deeps, But gently, please, Stubborn though he may be. If it could only take three days, How my mother’s heart would Rejoice in praise.  From the hell you allow him, Let him cry to you. Is not Nineveh and mercy Exactly what he knows He needs— A mercy on enemies He fears You will concede? Please let all the shade wither If his is an angry soul; Humble him and help him follow Where you would have his purpose...

Keep Reading