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What A Stay-At-Home Mom Of 3 Is Really Up Against

The next time you find yourself thinking that stay-at-home moms have it easier than everyone else, think again.
Sarah Cottrell, the writer behind Housewife Plus, opened up in a Facebook post about a day she spent at home with her three children that left her frustrated and exhausted — and further proved that being a stay-at-home mom can be hard work.
"This is me. Right now. Trying not to pull my hair out," she began her post, which was shared to the Love What Matters Facebook page. "I have been trying to finish the laundry I started yesterday and do the dishes (we don't have a dishwasher because I AM THE DISHWASHER.)"
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Cottrell went on to explain that her oldest son spent the day literally bouncing off the walls until he made a dent, her middle child hit his head while playing in a linen closet, and her infant daughter was "either starting to teethe or is testing out the theory that if she screams loud enough and for long enough that I will actually cry."
That meant that getting any chores done in the house, she wrote, was "dizzying."
"I haven't showered, eaten, or even gotten dressed for that matter and it's already after 2pm," she wrote. "And you know what? I don't feel #blessed in this moment. I feel frustrated and tired."
While stay-at-home motherhood obviously isn't always like this — for anyone, let alone Cottrell herself — her post shows that there are multitudes to motherhood. Her story is just one way that it can look, and plenty of parents can probably relate.
"But that's what parenting is, right?" she wrote. "It's this crazy journey that is mostly rewarding but pock marked by crappy days like this one."
The point, however, is that we are all doing our best, but we can all still have days like this — and that's totally okay.
"I won't ever color neatly inside the lines of motherhood, but I love my kids with all my heart," she wrote. "And right now while the sink is full of dirty dishes, at least one kid is whining, and I smell faintly of pee and spit up (don't ask) that big feeling of love is all I got. And I call that a win."
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Welcome to Mothership: Parenting stories you actually want to read, whether you're thinking about or passing on kids, from egg-freezing to taking home baby and beyond. Because motherhood is a big if — not when — and it's time we talked about it that way.
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