I saw this nanny . . .

I saw a nanny walking 2 kids down the sidewalk the other day when it was still really cold. I thought "man, she's committed to the walk to bundle them up and take them out". Don't ask how I knew it was a nanny, I just knew. When you go the park and the library enough in Park Ridge, you can spot a nanny verses a mom in a minute. So then it occurred to me that this is her JOB. So making an effort to go on walks and take the kids places maybe wouldn't seem quite as hard because it's just part of the job. It would get boring taking care of kids if you didn't have a schedule and a plan and somewhere to go or something to do most days. Maybe that is why I run into them at the playground in the mall, the library and the park so much and they act as though they have been there every day that week, which they may have. They probably have some pretty good schedules and some pretty good plans to keep the job moving. So then I reflected that back on my time as a stay at home mom. Do I look at it as a job or "serving my time"? Am I just waiting out this toddler and baby phase so we can be more involved with the world? Some days I feel like I am just waiting out the DAY until Stephen gets home. What a waste. True, when I had new babies I felt it was an accomplishment just to keep them alive all day (i.e. eating, sleeping, out of poopy diapers, etc). And even now, some days it feels like an accomplishment to shower by 2 pm. But I think there can be so much more. I think I could approach it more like a job and try and do better because if I had wasted this much time at my last full time job, I would have been FIRED by now. Maybe I finally get my husband's view of things. When a girl is asked what she wants to be when she grows up and she says "a mom" he wants to say "sure, I want to be a dad, but what KIND of mom are you going to be?"