Today’s blog is about being a stay at home mum. But first, I don’t know why but when my red hot pokers and gladioli flower and look lovely, we get gale force winds that wreck them. Every year it happens, without fail, so why? The red hot pokers have gone from their look of burning fire to hitting stone cold ashes. Very dark brown, not the glorious red and yellow which they were, what a shame!
Kevin has finished decorating their bedroom at last, in spite of lots of interruptions for all the things that usually go wrong in our house. It all looks fresh and new in spite of him looking like a snowman a lot of the time! That’s another room ticked off his list of things to do. The poor lad, he’s the only one fit enough to do the hard labour, although I in my younger days I did all our decorating, and my mum’s too. One wave of a paintbrush and my dad ran for the hills.
Being a Stay at Home Mum
I was a stay at home mum, which most mum’s were in those days. I didn’t want my mum to bring Jane up and get all the reward of seeing all the baby stages that such a lot miss. So I stayed put, and my is it hard work. Those who said ‘oh you don’t work then’ used to get my goat. I bet I worked ten times harder than they did, sitting in an office.
You have to be educator, cleaner, psychiatrist, police woman, referee and all the millions of things us mums have to do. Plus all the shopping, washing, ironing, cleaning and always a hot meal on the table when Derek came home. Looking back at what I did, there’s no wonder that working mums today are run ragged. I couldn’t have run the house like I did and work full time.
I always remember a couple of friends – one who ‘had’ to work as a teacher until she dropped. She had to pay mortgages, holidays and all the stuff that people wanted. I used to think she was mad, especially when she said that she wanted to leave teaching and had no choice but to stay.
No Choice…
I remember saying to her that I would hate to be in that position. But they’re the sacrifices that people make when they want all the luxuries of life. Not for me. Another friend started a full time job and had a decent sized house to run, with two boys and a husband who worked as a policeman. I asked her how on earth she planned to do all that, especially as she had to travel to get there.
Her answer was that she just had to ignore things that wanted doing and shopped at the supermarket once a month where they spent a fortune on all the things they needed. She didn’t have time to do anything round the house only basic tidying up. But luckily, she was laid back in nature and could close her eyes to the ever growing things that needed doing.
Everyone has their choice and when I was asked on many occasions to work at the place where she did, I kept saying no until they got sick of hearing my refusal!
Normal in those Days
I enjoyed being a stay at home mum. Many of my friends were. That was the norm in those days. But I bet now that people would lift their hands up in horror, and the thought of someone actually wanting to bring their own child up would amaze them.
I had time to come and go as I wanted. I looked after the garden, grew plants from seed. Jane had her own little patch of garden where she had childrens gardening stuff. A little trowel, fork and spade, not forgetting a miniature sweeping brush of course. Well you’ve got to get them to learn to tidy up don’t you!
She loved her little garden and would happily play there right from being very young, while I did other gardening jobs. If there was anything Jane liked it was playing in dirt and my did she get mucky! She was always a tomboy, although she did like girls things as well. But she never forgave me for not getting her a garage. Her dad would often buy her a little car or something on his way home from work.
Lots of Lego
She had one of those Lego road things that opened up like a big board. It had junctions, streets and all the rest on it, which she’d be very busy driving her cars round and round on. Then she got to building her Lego, which again her daddy bought on the way home from work. Hubby loved playing at Lego, and they would sit for hours at a time building houses, hospitals and towns, complete with the early little figures they had. She loved them.
She and her dad still love Lego to this day, but there I’ll remain quiet on the subject before I get into trouble!
Because I was a stay at home mum, I was always there when she came home from school. Then she would tell me all about what had happened. Luckily she loved school, apart from the bullies who plagued her all her school life. But that’s another story for another day.
All in all, am I glad I brought her up myself instead of someone else doing it? Yes I am and wouldn’t miss that for the world, but I bet I would change certain things if I had my time to come again. Everyone has the right to please themselves and being an oldie, it was a different time then. It was the usual rather than the oddity, and now it’s the other way round.
You might also be interested in:
- A First Holiday in Blackpool
- Baking, School Milk and Phones when I was Young
- Being a Stay at Home Mum
- My Summer Holidays in Blackpool
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