by Melissa Willets posted in Parenting

A working mom friend recently said, "I'm just not cut out to be a stay-at-home mom."
Her comment got me, a SAHM, thinking, Is anyone really cut out for this"
Even after 10 years of staying home with kids, I don't feel "cut out" for the intense loneliness, isolation, lack of adult contact, boredom, and dramatic lifestyle shift being a SAHM requires. The suit of stay-of-home momdom still feels ill-fitting.
I'm not sure I'll ever fully settle into this life, where I put myself last every second. This life, in which my most important tasks are frequently as banal as emptying the dishwasher, and wiping little behinds.
Not that I regret staying home. It's what I chose, and for that, I know I am truly lucky. But there are mornings I hear my husband's car pull out of the driveway, and I remember my life before kids, and I grieve for the loss of that part of me. That person got to sit in meetings with real, live adult humans! That person went to the bathroom without being interrupted by tiny fists rapping on the door every three seconds.
Then my first daughter was born and, overnight, I was supposed to feel "cut out" for a completely different life. Suddenly, my morning meetings involved bottles and diaper changes, instead of PowerPoint presentations. I brought an infant seat into the bathroom with me, instead of a tube of lipstick. I went days without showering, or even really looking in the mirror....