Every day, moms everywhere are ridiculed and judged for the way in which they choose to raise their children and be a “mom.” While there is no one universal way to raise children, it seems as though everyone online is a critic.
Stay-at-home moms tend to get the most judgment from other parents.
While not every parent is fortunate enough to have the ability to stay home with their children, some moms can. It doesn’t make them any less successful or “hard-working,” it just means their lifestyle is different than working moms.
Many assume stay at home moms do “nothing.”
Stay at home moms still have work to do, despite not being paid to do it. Many parents who do go to work don’t realize how much time and effort goes into taking care of children all day long — especially when they are young.
Recently, one mom dealt with the outrageous judgment for being a stay at home mom from a reader of her website.
Mom Anna Strode, who is a personal trainer who seeks out to motivate other moms to live their best, healthy life, received a comment on her website the other day that truly upset her.
According to Anna, the person commented accusing her of not doing work as a stay-at-home mom.
In a post, Anna shared she said, “Last week someone made a comment on my page and you know what, it upset me. It cut me pretty deep and while I do my best to remain positive – this hurt. It basically said ‘I wish I got to stay at home all day and exercise with my child, instead I have to go to work and do WORK…”
Anna said that the comment deeply offended her, and she answered in a lengthy Instagram caption.
Anna said: “You think I don’t WORK?! You think I sit at home all day and twiddle my thumbs? You think 2 x 22 month old toddlers just let me kick my feet up all day after I’ve done my morning workout? You think I’m beaming with energy as I grow a new baby and frantically do my best to keep up with twin boys that run rings around me?!”
She even broke down what her days consist of.
“Just to break it down… I exercise for 20-30 minutes a day. Sometimes stopping 20 times throughout to fetch toys, bring food, stop hair pulling, break up fights over toys and some days, stopping 2 minutes in because it just ain’t happening that day!”
She also clarified that she has to work in exercise around her children’s routines and moods.
“Other days we’re so busy or the boys are so CLINGY / CRANKY (eg: this photo sums it up) the best workout I can get in is some squats, push ups and tricep dips while they eat or while we practice new words, counting to 10 or all the body parts we’ve learnt.”
What Anna actually does in a day will sound familiar to all moms.
“I certainly DON’T spend all day exercising. My days are spent changing sh***y nappies, dealing with tantrums, playing cars and trucks, making food that gets thrown on the floor before it’s even tasted, walking the streets trying to get tired, grumpy children to nap, attempting to teach two little humans to SHARE instead of bite, pull hair, scratch or push each other, pushing swings, climbing up and down bloody forts that shouldn’t even be in kids playgrounds because they are so damn unsafe, singing the alphabet, going for adventures to keep the bubs happy, vacuuming 3 times a day because of all that food that I worked so hard to cook wasn’t even considered eating, oh and did I mention the constant battle of playing referee ALL day between two little cheeky monkeys that guess what DON’T ‘just play happily and entertain each other all day!’
And as a friendly reminder, Anna has four children under the age of four.
“For the record, TWINS don’t do that!!! Maybe when they’re older, yes! I hope so anyway ~ but for now, no – I literally for most of the part can’t take my eyes off them! “
Many people commented in support of Anna, saying she was killing it as a stay at home mom and to ignore the haters.
One person said: “You are doing the most important “work” on the planet Earth. You are being a mom and raising your kids! God bless you and your family!” Another added: “Being a mum is the hardest job of all and it is known fact. And you are dealing with the double fun so don’t listen to ppl they don’t know what they are talking bout.”
It’s time moms stop judging each other and start supporting each other instead.
Anna teaches us all a valuable lesson: you don’t know what someone else is going through until you have to actually live their life. As many of us won’t live in the shoes of others, it’s time to stop judging and start supporting each other instead.
