The Heat is On

Do you remember that Glenn Frey song?

It reminds me of hot summer night and long summer days playing with my boys.

For parents who work out of the home, like my husband, summer wasn’t that different from the school year. My husband still went off to work Monday through Friday and I was still home holding everything together.

For my boys, summer meant an amazing couple of months of freedom, adventure, and long days of unending games.

And for me, the stay at home mom, it meant everything changed. Many moms that I talk to tell me how they love having their children home for the summer. They can now have a relaxed schedule and spend wonderful moments creating memories.

I can’t help it but when that June Cleaver mom says this and goes on with a litany of “amazingness” that they are going to accomplish, I throw up, just a little, inside my mouth.

Then I hang my head in shame and feel incredibly guilty.

Then I hang my head in shame and feel incredibly guilty.

When my boys were home all summer, I had four times the amount of work to do. Dishes piled up faster. Crumbs were all over my counter all the time. Clothes were strewn haphazardly all over the house.

I had no quiet “me time.”

Honestly, I like school. I am happy being the, “here’s breakfast, a packed lunch, there is the door, see you in 7 hours” mom.

Did that make me a bad mom? No. Maybe it made me an imperfect mom. Or maybe it made me a real mom. And I am here to applaud all the real moms out there, the ones who sigh in relief when their kids walk out the door, the ones who love their children to distraction and would do anything for them AND also love having some time to themselves.

I am not June Cleaver. But then again, I think I’m okay with that.

– Kara a.k.a. Epic Engineer

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