Self-Made Mom

I’m nearing the one-month mark of my SAHM-status and I’m feeling the tug between my next move and nothing at all. Everyone keeps asking me: how do you like staying at home?

I love it.

But I just can’t enjoy it.

I feel like I need to be doing something. That being at home raising a toddler isn’t enough. That ensuring things get done around the house isn’t enough. That being “just a mom” isn’t enough.

Thing is, I don’t want to rush into my next thing. Do I want to be a writer? Not sure. Volunteer? Maybe.

Another issue is I’m not feeling all that interested or motivated to do anything lately.  How can I commit to an activity when I can’t even find the time to read all my favorite blogs on a regular basis? How can I say yes to someone else’s request when I’m content to spend the time during my son’s nap watching old The O.C. episodes? (It might get easier after continuously coming to the realization that no matter how many episodes I watch, I will never have Rachel Bilson’s body.)

I still don’t miss the rat race, but at times I miss having something else to do.  Or talk about with my husband. The only hot topic I can muster up these days is the size of my son’s bowel movement or what he ate for dinner.

But I don’t know what I want to do. My husband says to just relax.  My Type-A personality is thrashing in revolt.  I guess I’ll just keep watching television and see if I can glean any answers.  Sandy Cohen seems to always give good advice.

Think Sandy’s got room in his house for one more?

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p.s. After I wrote this post, I found this one at Babble.  Ah, what safety in numbers.  At least we can all be confused together.

When I enrolled my son in a gymnastics class last month, I got a few giggles and sidelong glances.  Don’t think I didn’t ask myself the same thing, “isn’t gymnastics just for girls?” But two of my SAHM acquaintances signed up for the class as well (with their daughters), and in the hopes of making some new real friends I decided to join them.

My friends and family were mixed on my decision.  Some thought the gym studio was better left to leotards and leggings.  Others scoffed at my question and said, “of course boys take gymnastics.” In my head I knew boys take gymnastics too, but part of me just couldn’t get past the thought of my son setting forth to do his floor routine in a singlet. Wouldn’t he freeze to death?

Please cover up during all the winter months.

It’s funny, my son and his peers seem to be entering a phase of their young lives where boys start to do “boy” stuff and girls start to do “girl” stuff.  I knew this moment would creep up on me eventually, but I made a conscious decision when my son was born to try to steer clear of activities that were biased towards one sex or the other.  And so far, it hasn’t been an issue - we all know classes at this age are based on how smart the mother thinks her child is the age of your child .

However, now that my son and his friends are hitting the twos, I’m beginning to see the lines being drawn more clearly. The girls are signing up for dance, the boys are leaning towards activities like soccer.  Hell, in our soccer class alone the boy/ girl ratio is something like 152/ 2.

But what do you do when you have a boy who would rather sit on the sidelines of his gymnastics class and eat a bagel than walk on the balance beam? Or one you know would enjoy that dance class that all the girls are enrolling in? I’d like to say that I could let go of the stereotypes and let him rip in a session of ballet.  (I think he’d look darling in those black jazz shoes.)  But part of me knows that when it comes down to it I will probably err in the direction of what the “boys” are doing. At least until he can tell me he’d rather pirouette than run cross-courts.

There’s nothing like an early-morning voting run with mommy to start the day.

Yes, dear, an African American and woman are on the ballot at last.  Can you say, Clinton? (PLEEEAASE!)

This is so much more fun than our Gymboree class, don’tcha think?

Happy Super Tuesday!

I’ve got a killer head cold, and I can’t call in sick to my toddler. 

But let me tell you, Dora makes a great back-up sitter.