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By
Diane Forrest
A man was sick and tired of
going to work every day while his wife stayed home, so he prayed:
"Dear Lord: I go to
work every day and put in 8 hours while my wife merely stays at home. I want
her to know what I go through, so please allow her body to switch with mine for
a day. Amen."
God, in His infinite
wisdom, granted the man's wish. The next morning, sure enough, the man awoke as
a wife and she as him.
He arose, cooked breakfast
for his mate, awakened the kids, fed them breakfast, taught them English and
Math, put them all in the car and picked up the dry cleaning, took it to the
cleaners and stopped at the bank to make a deposit, went grocery shopping, then
drove home to put away the groceries, pay the bills and balance the check book.
He cleaned the cat's litter
box and bathed the dog. Then it was already 1:00 p.m. and he hurried to make the
beds, do the laundry, vacuum, dust, and sweep and mop the kitchen floor. Taught
the kids Science and Social Studies.
At 3:30 p.m. he dropped one
child off at a scout meeting, another at soccer practice and the third at piano
lessons, then went home and set up the ironing board and watched TV while he
did the ironing.
At 6:30 p.m. he began
peeling potatoes and washing vegetables for salad, breaded the pork chops and
snapped fresh beans for supper. After supper he cleaned the kitchen, ran the
dishwasher, folded laundry, bathed the kids, and put them to bed.
At 9:00 p.m. he was
exhausted and, though his daily chores weren't finished, he went to bed where
he was expected to make love, which he managed to get through without
complaint.
The next morning he awoke
and immediately knelt by the bed and said, "Lord, I don't know what I was
thinking. I was so wrong to envy my wife's being able to stay home all day.
Please, oh please, let us trade back."
The Lord, in His infinite
wisdom, replied, "My son, I feel you have learned your lesson and I will
be happy to change things back to the way they were. You'll just have to wait
nine months, though...You got pregnant last night."
Before World War II, it was unusual to find a mom
working. A mother's place was in the
home, taking care of their children.
There were some exceptions, if the father was absent, or had died. But these were few and far between. During World War II, women went to work while
their husbands went off to war. After the
soldiers came home from the war, some women went back to their homes to care
for their families, and some women decided they liked working, and kept right
on doing their jobs.
Over the years the cost of living has increased so that
in order to make ends meet, more and more women had to enter the work
force. These days it is unusual to see a
mother staying home to take care of her children, they are the ones who are
looked at as being odd.
Still some of these families need 2 incomes to maintain a
household. Some women have been able to
perform their work duties at home as well as take care of their children. This makes for a very hard and stressful day
for the mother and employee. She has to
learn how to juggle her time and energy between work and children.
Today is Work at Home Mom's Week. http://workathomemoms.about.com/ has some
tips and ideas about how to balance
both of these and still keep your sanity.
If you know of a work at home mom, give them a call and offer to babysit
for a few hours, or take them dinner. I
know it will make their day, and will also make you feel good for helping
someone else.
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