Lazy Motherhood

I'm tired of people jumping to my defence when I say that being a stay at home mom isn't all that difficult. It's really not, I occasionally clean the house, do a few dishes and take care of my own child. It's not the hardest job in the world, it's not worth the $150,000 that some people have estimated it to be and it's not the Wonder Woman calling that some people imagine it to be.
Being a parent is the hardest job in the world. And that doesn't change if your at home with them or at work and leaving them with a nanny. The hard decisions are yours, the future of their mortal soul is yours to deal with, the values that they grow up with are yours to teach them and nothing having to do with your employment status changes that.
That said, I fully admit to being a bit of a lazy mom. Just now I've been sitting at my computer for the better part of an hour checking email and reading other blogs while my daughter finishes her breakfast at the coffee table while watching Sesame Street. (To be fair to myself, she is eating homemade pancakes which I whipped up this morning while still in my pajamas) I just looked over to check on her and she's taking various items from around the living room and rearranging them to her liking or trying to discover what they are. Would she get this kind of education if I was one of those intense mothers who insist on keeping the living room the exact same way it was before she had children and insisted that her child play only with they toys bought for her. Call me crazy but I think it's good that kids think everything is a toy. Play is the way they learn things. It's their job right now. Sophie plays like a scientist, touching to feel the texture, testing the objects limits, smelling it, seeing if it will hold water. She's storing up information on all of these things that she might not get if I were one of those "in-your-face" moms. She's figuring things out for herself.
Plus, I like to think that having time to think like this means she'll have a saner mother to deal with her during the more labor intensive parts of parenthood like this morning when we woke up to a major tantrum. Time out is a wonderful thing.