With the addition of my third child, I could see that God had a new plan for my life.  That meant leaving my part time job as an engineer and joining the ranks of the other stay at home moms.  Now 2 years into the journey I can say that I couldn’t imagine it any other way.  Though I am blessed (most days) 🙂 to be SAHM, what they don’t tell you is that this also means the majority of the day while your kids are awake and your spouse is at work, you are also a single parent.  When you have little ones who aren’t in school (like mine), that means no matter how small or large the tasks at hand are, my little sidekicks are always near.

When I was working I regularly ran errands at lunch.  Dry cleaning pick ups, prescription refills, picking up a few things at the store – oh how I long for those random minutes wandering alone in Target now!!!  I had pretty much reconciled myself to the fact that 15 minute errands would take an extra hour and that even at the dentist I would have a child in my lap.  That was until I started tapping into the resource that is all my other amazing stay at home mom friends.

“Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others”  Philippians 2:4

As I reflect on my community of other SAHM I can certainly see Paul’s words resonating loud and clear.  Looking back at this week it is apparent to me how selflessly my friends have been looking out for my interests as well as their own as I have tried to do the same.  For example, the last 5 days looked a little something like this….

Day 1:  on our own

Day 2:  a friend takes my daughter to and from school

Day 3:  a friend takes my daughter to school and I watch her son so she can volunteer for an hour

Day 4:  I watch another friend’s son so she can get a haircut, then I picked up another friend’s child from school

Day 5:  a friend watches my oldest while I take my youngest to the doctors, then I pick up 2 friend’s children from school

It was an orchestrated effort to say the least, but one that allowed us to be better women, mothers and friends to each other.  Being a SAHM is a challenge, particularly when you are balancing the needs of school age, preschool and infant children.  I am so grateful for all those women in my life who “look not only to their own interests, but also the interests of others”!

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