You know, very early this morning, I got to thinking. (In that space between wakefulness and being fast asleep, all sorts of random things fly through my head.) I started thinking about how, as a mother, you constantly have to be asking yourself questions about your child: is he breathing? is he cold? is he hungry? does he have to go to the bathroom? Even if it's 2:15 a.m. and you happen to be awake, you have to go through the checklist. Because until a certain age, the bathroom and food thing he certainly can't deal with 100% on his own. And the breathing and cold thing -- well I have a hard time not checking if I happen to wake up in the middle of the night. Jake has a bad habit of not sleeping under covers -- but he's so hot natured, warm p.j.s are really uncomfortable for him. He won't wear socks, and that doesn't help. But laying still in a 76 degree house, you get cold after a while. And it IS a mothering responsibility, regardless of how progressive your relationship with your spouse is -- when you hear on the news about something that's happened to a child, your first thought is "WHERE is that child's mother?!" not "gee, why wasn't his dad watching him?" And I think this is one of the reasons mothers get stressed -- because in addition to the cooking and cleaning and laundry and scheduling and driving and shopping, we're also responsible, 24/7, for our child's well-being and every little need, right down to breathing and staying alive. Especially when you have multiple children, that's overwhelming (or so I hear.)
Just my deep thought for the day.
May 4th, 2002 Our wedding
September 14th, 2002. Going home from the hospital with 2 day old baby Jake!
10 days old and we're ALL worn out!
1st Halloween (6 weeks)
1st Christmas (3.5 months)
January 2003 ~ 4 months old
July 2003 ~ 10 months old
December 2003 ~ 15 months old
June 2004 ~ 21 months old 
Lou's 28th birthday. 10-23-2004. 
Easter 2005 ~ 30 months old 
wow, couldn't agree more. Especially having multiples. Overwhelming, but rewarding too :-)
Posted by: Priscilla | August 02, 2006 at 05:20 PM
Cooking?
Posted by: Husband | August 02, 2006 at 05:28 PM
So true. My mind is always going through multiple checklists several times a day - no wonder I'm tired!
Posted by: Sue | August 06, 2006 at 10:25 PM
You hit the nail on the head with this one. Guy and I were talking about this recently and he said "I know your job as a Mother will always be 10 times harder than ANYTHING I'll EVER have to do." And you know who much he does, but as a Mother, well, that's just it: YOU'RE THE MOTHER. lol
Posted by: Ninotchka | August 11, 2006 at 11:36 PM