If I were a Stay-at-Home Mom

Today is a momentous day. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. The inauguration of President Obama for his second term. And, equally exciting for me, a day off from work.

Whenever I have a day off, I tend to sleep in, enjoying the freedom from the alarm clock. This weekend, though, I managed to get to bed at a reasonable time every night, which left me rested and eager to take full advantage of the holiday. Setting the alarm clock for 6:20, I was determined to get up and make breakfast in the relative peace of the day.

Totally worth it.

As a working mom, it is very, very rare that I am ever home by myself. I'm sure my house has its quiet moments; they're just never when I'm around. I reveled in the silence and stillness of the house as I padded to the kitchen this morning to get my domestic goddess on.

Apparently I'm a minor goddess, as evidenced by the fact that I forgot to take the frozen crust for the planned breakfast quiche out of the freezer last night. Or maybe evidenced by the fact that I was using a frozen crust instead of making my own, but whatever. Undeterred, I got the crust out, turned on Mike & Mike, got my coffee going, and pulled out my iPad to surf Facebook and Twitter. Ah, the luxury.

Since it was still quiet and there were not two small people speaking at Volume Level 10, my mind actually began to wander. What would it be like to be a stay at home mom? Not just the generalities that come to mind on a particularly crappy day at work. The true schedule, the actual routine I would follow if there was no corporate job waiting for me every morning.

There would be a lot more of this:

But there would also be more of this:

My kids could count on me for more of this:

But my husband would count on me for more of this:

As a stay at home mom, I bet I'd have a lot of days like today where I got out for my run in the sunshine, and in temperatures well above freezing, unlike at 5:15 this morning. Bonus.

But it would also mean that I probably never would've met my amazing running group here in Fayetteville, because there wouldn't have been a need for me to run at 5:15 in the morning. And I wouldn't know my terrific co-workers who bring a lot of fun and friendship to those hours working at my corporate job.

So as fun as it is to daydream about the road not taken, the details just confirm what I say all the time. Being a grown up is sometimes nothing more than a series of very hard decisions. Choices every day, doing the best we can to be the best we can. The stay at home mom choice isn't really on the table for me; the best choice I can make is to keep being the best MOM I can be, no matter where I spend my hours during the day.