Brad Kearns understands the stresses of a demanding job. He works in human resources and he has three children along with his wife, Sarah. As it turns out, however, his wife has a more difficult time because of her stay at home mom jobs. He talks about how ‘hard’ his work is compared to his wife’s and I’m sure people everywhere are loving it.
“Massive day at work today. We have our monthly senior leadership meeting,” he wrote. “I have to travel for a five-hour round journey split by car and train. Then when I rock up I have to sit there all day and do important workie stuff and have big work conversations. It’s exhausting.”
Next, he talks about everything that his wife has to do on a daily basis.
“And what’s my wife doing? Not much really,” he explained. “All she has to do is get two boys up, dressed and fed whilst breastfeeding the third. Then no doubt they’ll need to be taken outside or to a park to get all that energy out. How easy is that. All she has to do is sort their bags out, find the hats, pack some snacks and a spare change of clothes, and buckle them into the car.”
“Then whilst trying to get them to rest she’ll jump online and do some online shopping. Groceries . . . what a life.”
As it turns out, that is only the tip of the iceberg for the morning. Much of the work of raising the children falls squarely on her shoulders.
“Then while they’re there she’ll have to feed the baby again cause that’s what he does,” said Brad. “Without letting go of him she’ll have to interact with and help the others on and off swings and stimulate them enough to not get bored. It’s easy really. They’ll come home where she’ll sort their lunch out. They probably won’t eat it. Then whilst trying to get them to rest she’ll jump online and do some online shopping. Groceries . . . what a life. As if you wouldn’t just go to [the grocery store] with three kids on your own.”
It doesn’t look like the afternoon is going to have much leisure time.
“No doubt in the afternoon they’ll be demanding to ride their bikes, scooters, go-karts, and run around out the back,” he said. “She’ll probably just sit around and feed Teddy again. At 4 p.m. they’ll start getting tired again and get grumpy. She’ll fight with them about stupid little things like ‘don’t hit your brother.'”
This stay at home mom has to worry about more than her three children. She also looks in on her husband on occasion.
“At 5 she’ll want to know where I’m at and how I’m tracking,” he said. “Groceries are about to be delivered and the boys are going crazy. Teddy needs to be held and she has to feed them and begin night routine. I’ll probably reply with a ‘call you back’ message cause I’m busy as f*ck.”
The next step is dinner time for the children. All of that is Sarah’s responsibility.
“She’ll prepare their dinner, watch them eat, run their bath and dress them for bed all in an hour with one hand cause she still holding Teddy,” he said. “Exhausted from non-stop torment and not a second to herself all day she’ll call me again to see where I’m at. She’ll be tired, smelly frustrated and sick of being touched. She’ll be irritable, yucky, and want nothing more than a shower, a shampoo, and a hot cup of tea.”
In the evening, Brad walks through the door and his wife is going to be exhausted. He might even have to cook his own dinner.
“I’ll strut into the house at 7:30 after my massive day,” wrote Brad. “She’ll be just chilling on her phone near a toddler or babies cot because they struggling to go to sleep and I bet the groceries are still out because she managed to just get the fridge stuff packed away. I’ll probably have to even prepare our dinner. On the weekend she’ll tell Knox he has a motorbike because ‘daddy works very hard for our family.’ Like I said; today’s a massive day for me.”