I am a stay at home mom and have been for 2 years now. Since having second child, my son, parenting and staying home with my kids has fulfilled me in a way that nothing else has. The first 9-12 months of my son’s life truly were a “baby-moon”. I could count on one hand the number of bad days we had. I was in a state of constant bliss and happiness. Of course he would cry or my daughter would need something and whine but overwhelmingly I felt whole and complete and fulfilled in a way I never have in my life. I still feel that, truly, but the baby-moon is long over. My son is now 16 months and has traded his non-fussy, happy as a clam attitude for full out tantrums, whining, screaming, hitting, pinching and even biting. Most of my interaction with him consists of “No! We do not act that way.” “No! That is not nice.” “Say please!” “No whining! No fussing!” (And insert your favorite phrase here.) My daughter seems so much easier than my son mainly because she’s older and can listen to reason and obey me and take timeouts as I dish them out, but she too has way too many moments of whining and crying. She is still in the phase that whining is her first line of defense for any and everything that goes wrong in her life.

And so I resonate with the piece on the Today show and agree that, even with feeling fulfilled in my role as a mother and feeling as though this was the job I was and am cut out for, I am still ambivalent about my kids. I end more days than not feeling like I didn’t spend enough time with them (and I’m their sole caretaker for 10 hours out of the day, 5 days a week!), I yelled at them too much, I wanted time alone too much, I avoided dealing with them as much as I could. I love them dearly but my days are, unfortunately, usually spent chastising, punishing and getting frustrated with them. Here and there are peppered in moments of extreme love and joy-having my daughter curl up with me and telling me she loves me, having my son lean in for a kiss (right before biting me, of course) or watching them play together sweetly in happiness. So I love my kids, I don’t hate my life, but some days I sure wish I could trade the kids in for a nice pair of cats. What about you?

(Photo: Jessica Todd Harper)