For all of you that work, I get it. You hate Mondays. But, here’s the deal, I hate Mondays too.
You might think as a stay at home mom that Mondays are all like, “Hey! Lay in your PJs until 10, shower by 11, and possibly do something productive by 2 when the kids are napping!” I wish Mondays would say that to me. Mondays are my least favorite day as a stay at home Mom too. And, I’ll tell you why…because while I’ve spent my weekend being out of my routine, I am going to pay for it come Monday morning. It never fails. So, are you dreading that to-do list on your desk back at work? As a SAHM, believe me, so am I!
Here are 10 Reasons Why Mondays Can Still Suck as a Stay At Home Mom
1. My husband was home all weekend. Oh, he’s going to love me for this one. It really isn’t his fault exactly. But, there is something about him being home all weekend that makes me want to do nothing productive or cram every possible activity into one weekend (usually on Saturday since we are Mormon and go to church for a billion hours on Sunday). Both the lack of productivity and the over productive spirit are equally as annoying. Because both leave my house incredibly messy. So, when Sunday rolls around, it usually looks like a small tornado blew through, and I’m putting it all off until Monday morning. Procrastination is my friend. Until Monday morning. Nothing like stepping on a lego barefoot to snap you back to reality.
2. We ate all our food in the house over the weekend. I kid you not, my fridge is usually BARE by Monday morning. We managed to scrounge every morsel of food over the weekend and Sunday night we are throwing together a meal of fish sticks and string cheese with a side of leftover ramen noodles. Mondays mean grocery shopping. If you’re thinking that grocery shopping isn’t that bad, let me refresh your memory by these posts:
Food Is Overrated & Other Excuses to Stop Grocery Shopping
My Husband Saved the Day & Learned a Little About Grocery Shopping
Another Failed Attempt At Grocery Shopping
I write about my lack of love for the grocery store a lot. Last Monday as I was checking out, I let out an incredibly audible, and fairly ridiculous loud sigh that caused the checker to look up at me. I’m a REALLY good sigher. I said in relief, “The worst part of my day is over.” I can be a tad bit dramatic at times, I know.
3. Packing Lunches. Do you know how incredibly hard it is to pack a lunch when you are out of everything? It takes too much brain power at 7am to think of a lunch I can fix and throw together out of ketchup, goldfish, and one can of cream of mushroom soup. And, while I have started letting her buy her lunch this year, when I think of doing that, all I can picture is pink slime. *shudder*
4. My to-do list in my head never ends. Mondays make me anticipate every possible activity I can think of for the entire week, and worry about the ones that are important that I’m sure to forget at some point during the week.
So, Monday morning involves me prioritizing every second of my upcoming week, while simultaneously realizing that I have 3 kids, and NOTHING will likely go according to plan. Mondays mean making a plan that will inevitably have to be changed. Tip: make as little plans as possible.
5. Tiny Dictators rule my home. Mondays, I always have high hopes of going grocery shopping, making a quick pop into Target, and Costco cause it’s right there too, getting an hour of blogging in, all before 10am while also cleaning my bathrooms that have sat there dirty for three two weeks. The truth is, I usually accomplish one or none of those things because my entire morning is ruled by a tiny dictator about to turn two that doesn’t want to wear clothes. You get the idea. Sometimes, I manage to change my sheets that are grossly overdue, and pat myself on the back for a job well done. This does not mean it took me 4 hours to change my sheets, it just means it took me four hours to make the tiny dictator happy enough so that I could actually accomplish something. Anything.
6. I ate like crap all weekend. This means that I’m back to my routine on Monday mornings of right and. Both of which OBVIOUSLY put me in an incredibly good mood. Ahem. Only to fail miserably by lunch time because I’m too exhausted from #2 and the arduous task of putting groceries away to chop a tomato or anything else healthy. So, instead, I grab a Costco sized croissant shove it into my mouth and vow to do better tomorrow.
7. My alarm clock is just as real as the working girl. Except it whines a little more. On the weekends, I can usually just count on plopping my kids in front of morning cartoons until they start climbing on me begging for food. On Monday morning? The alarm clock still has to go off for me too. Except my alarm clock is disguised in little tiny human beings that rule my world and need to go to school and preschool in order for me to change my sheets, remember? Whether it’s reminding the oldest to put her shirt on 15 times during the time I took to pack her lunch, fix her breakfast, and feed her brothers, or reminding the 4 year old that preschool is more fun than watching the same episode of Cat in the Hat that he’s for sure seen 62 times, there are things to get done. Lots of them. And, if I don’t start running the moment that first alarm goes off, there are very real consequences here too. Have you ever gone 6 months without changing your sheets? Yeah, me either.
8. I’m depressed because I have no other adult to roll my eyes at during the day or laugh with. While this may seem contradictory to #1, I really do enjoy having my husband home to laugh through the chaos with me. I mean, rolling your eyes with someone that truly understands how the chaos makes you crazy, is so comforting when all three kids are having meltdowns at once. And it’s so much more fun to laugh with someone, when your 4 year old prays at mealtime that his big sister “won’t be as whiney” or that “his nose won’t be too itchy anymore”. Plus, he cooks on the weekends. BIG bonus.
9. Mondays mean less adult interaction. I have so much to do on Mondays, that I can’t even begin to think about talking to an adult on the phone, or getting together with someone. Mondays are packed with lots of crap, so you get sucked into the abyss of wiping noses, cleaning messes, and just trying to keep your head above water. And, there’s not even time to complain about it on a status on FB. OK, maybe we could make time for that. But, being the lone grown up in a sea of little people can make you re-think what you were put on this earth for. Luckily, Tuesdays sometimes make up for it. If you can get your sheets changed on Monday, that is.
10. You aren’t allowed to whine about your Mondays. Let’s face it, the mommy wars are real. I think they’re stupid, but real. Just to clear things up, this list is in no way saying I have a harder job than you working moms. In fact, I hate the mommy wars with a passion, and if anyone even tries to pick that fight with me, I will delete your comment with haste. Let’s just all agree that whether you work, don’t work, work part-time, work at home, etc. if kids are involved, your life is still crazy and I think you’re amazing. Good? But, I guarantee you, someone will be thinking it. Probably this mom who posted this on a baby center board:
“Monday’s suck. I miss my babies so much!! I love spending the whole weekend with my babies. I am so jealous of you SAHM’s. Being able to spend every day with my kids would be awesome.”
And, for that reason, Mondays suck as a SAHM because you aren’t even allowed to say it out loud. But, I just did it. You’re welcome.
Link up with us below and tell us about what makes you crazy for my Manic Mondays Blog Hop. Click on this little blue guy to add your link:
Grab the button below and add it to your post sometime this week. It doesn’t have to be today, but please come join in the fun!!
I love this post- and couldn’t agree more. And I only have a 15 month boy. Worse- my husband started working from home about four months ago. So I get the adult camaraderie – but rarely. It’s more of a tease, really. And he ends up working longer hours – sometimes at the risk of blurring the lines between home and work. Oh and my fantasy of going to the grocery store while the baby naps? I think I did it once and got a frantic phone call telling me I had to get home. Sigh. So in most ways this situation is way better than when he was gone…I know I’ve got it good but I feel ungrateful when I complain….
Well, my blog is a safe place to complain if you want!! Anytime! 🙂
Hope you found a glimmer of happiness in your Monday! Mine is an uninterrupted cup of tea (I’ve received the gift of a long afternoon nap!) oh man, make that a half cup…..
I do my grocery shopping on Fridays, so there’s that…
Also, I hear you on the routine mess-up of having Hubs home on the weekend! Yes. For that reason I can’t wait until he goes back to work on Mondays! Except now he has a job where he sometimes and totally randomly works from home. Kill me now. I love him dearly, but for some reason dealing with Monkey is sooo much easier without him around!
I think it’s because they just have their own ideas of how things should go, or they are more relax, which puts a kink in my over-strict way of doing things! 🙂
Ha! Are we related?? I LOVED this and honestly could have written this myself!!! Mondays are rough, right? I am on a tea break during nap time and it is almost 2pm and guess what – I am wrecked! But wow, I could NOT do a grocery shop on a Monday – NO WAY! R.E.S.P.E.C.T girl! Thank you for saying all this out loud – if I were near ya, I’d high five ya!!
Ha! Glad we coud relate! And, yeah, grocery shopping on monday SUCKS!
I am not all that sold by your argument, ma’am, however, were I able to say vagina on your blog, I’d say that I’d love to punch that commenter who’d love to be a SAHM right in her vagina. Sounds to me like your Sundays suck the most, but that might just be due to the fact that I’m a semi-lapsed Catholic.
I don’t know how SAHMs do it without going batshit crazy, quite honestly. Ha, I had a whole comment written but the more I read it, the more I thought that one of your readers who doesn’t know me will totally read it the wrong way and I’ll end up the villain on some mommy blogger board or whatever, so I’ll leave it as is. Lol.
Oh Don! Since when do you care what others think??? Speak your mind friend! And, yes, I saw that comment on the message board and definitely wanted to do some punching myself!
I couldn’t agree more. Packing lunches is the number one thing I dread about school days. I don’t know why. It only takes a few minutes, but I dread it and put it off until the last minute.
Yeah, why does that simple thing seem so hard?? I don’t get it.
I make my kids pack their own lunches from day one of firat grade. I have four in elementary and two at home with me and I don’t have time tondeal with lunch requests. I give them a guideline (sandwich, fruit, treat, or at least protein, carb, and fruit/veggie) and make sure we have food go pack lunches with, but it’s their job. No whining to me if they don’t like what’s in there. They made it. It doesn’t mean they don’t whine about having to make lunches, but they know it’s expected of them, like getting dressed. It’s made life a bit easier. 🙂 I highly recommend it! Tell them you’re training them for life. 🙂
So many typos! Sorry! This is what happens when you get fed up with autocorrect and turn it off! 😉
Mondays suck for everyone. Period. But what doesn’t suck is that I think the post I’m writing this week will work for the linkup! Yay!
Yay!! Can’t wait to see it!
Mondays are a hard transition for everyone!
I think Mondays would suck more for SAHMs. I work out of the house, and by the time the weekend is over, I’m fantasizing about my nice tidy, child-free office. Sure, the mornings and evenings are insane, but in theory, a change is as good as a break.
Yes, I might just be dreaming about that too! Except my fantasy is more of being alone in a tropical paradise or something….
Punch her in the vagina?!!! LOL!!! Oh he cracks me up! My kind of person for sure. You are so funny…though I don’t hate Mondays like you do I can relate to most of what you wrote. Thankfully I don’t have any lunches to make yet but I am already dreading that part.
Thanks for the laughs as usual!
so true!!
Lol! I have mixed emotions about Mondays. Part of me likes the new beginning, a normal routine again, stability, etc but the other part of me realizes there’s gonna be a whole lotta work for the next FIVE days! Haha
Yes!! that’s true too. I do like the routine.
P.S. I voted for ya!
Thanks for the vote!!
I’m a SAHM and I was nodding throughout this. I so hate making those lunches. And I detest my alarm clock. It goes off at 645. Blah!
Yeah, mine goes off about that time too! 🙂
Truly, Monday’s suck all around. I can totally commiserate with not being able to get ANYTHING done in a timely manner, even if I’m only dealing with that on the weekends. That’s just life with little ones isn’t it? #9 has to be the hardest part though. At the very least, you can know that Tuesday is less than 24 hours away!
Tuesday doesn’t get enough credit. Although, I do laundry on that day, so I kind of hate tuesdays also. I’m sure I could come up with some reason I hate every day of the week if I tried! 😉
I actually don’t mind Mondays all that much. But, that being said, I can totally understand why people hate Mondays and why you, too, would hate them. On the bright side, Mondays are only once a week! 😉
Oh I hate Mondays for so many of the very same reasons! And I’ve written about the mommy wars before. They are ridiculous. We should be supporting each other and not judging and competing! So, that being said, I’m a SAHM and my Mondays suck. 🙂
I could not agree with you anymore. I am glad I am not the only one. I could have written this (well, if I was smart enough to articulate my own thoughts with tiny dictators running around) Maybe we should just hang out on Mondays and put it all off for another day.
Sounds good!! And, just FYI, I’m totally going to get you and my sister Lindsey confused now. 🙂
Quite enlightening….looking forwards to returning.
Can I just say that I love you!? That’s a perfect way to spell it out for anyone who hasn’t been there. I am currently a stay at home mom who was on the brink of escape when I got pregnant again! I am currently in a state of “poor me” even though I love and want this baby. I was soooooooo close to going back to school, for the second time… Don’t get me wrong, I love my kids and love being able to stay home with them when they are little. I want to be the best mommy ever, it just isn’t as easy as Carol Brady made it seem (she had an Alice!! Where can I get an Alice!?) anyway thanks for posting this! I’m glad I’m not the only lonely mom in the boat!
Thanks Rachel!! Glad you can relate. And, yes…I feel a little robbed that I didn’t get an Alice either!! 🙂 Hope you’ll stick around. Because It think we’ll get along great.
Oh gosh how I love this post!!!! Everything you said is SOOOO TRUE!!!! Mondays are SO overwhelming for all the reasons you shared. I didn’t know you were a Mormon? Very cool Meredith! 🙂
You are so right! Mondays are crappy and we SAHMs can’t even complain about it.
Yes!!!!
Love this! All mama-ing is hard, whether we SAH, work full-time, part-time, whatever. I stayed at home for the first 3 1/2 years and then began working PT. Mondays sucked then and they sucked when I worked full-time and they sometimes suck now too! Also – something else we have in common – I cannot stand going to the grocery store.
Ugh. It really is the worst.
Not a SAHM but I can still relate!