Wednesday, July 20, 2011

SAHMs and Precious Time

8:00 AM | Posted by Pam Allen | | Edit Post
This fall the consignment game was a brutal one. Hours of tagging and retagging, hauling, sorting. Long, hot lines, emails more threatening and guilt-laden than an afternoon with my MIL, grouchy mamas, aggressive mamas, agitated little ones, it goes on and on….It left me beaten down, frustrated and swearing I will never do it again. But unfortunately I know I will be back - out of necessity. Just as during my first delivery I swore up and down that I would never, ever endure such misery again, time has a way of easing the pain and making the impossible seem possible once more. My husband looks at me incredulously as he says “You went through all that to make a couple hundred dollars?” And so I explain again. The budget in our household for new clothing is $0. Sure, I could get by with the few hand-me-downs we receive and an occasional $1 find on the clearance rack, but somehow that superwoman mentality inside me says if you just give up16 more hours of sleep and clean bathrooms and floors for a week, and you can swap those cute old clothes for new-to-us, bigger and just as cute old clothes from someone else! Ingenious!
As a child, my working mom purchased most of my clothing new from a department store. Not an option for us, but I’m fine (actually pretty proud) knowing my daughter’s adorable outfit cost $1.50 on ½ off day at consignment, as long as the end result is comparable. And I don’t have to stress as much if she gets a little paint on her shirt!
And then there’s the couponing. A working mommy friend recently commented on another couponing mama saying “Sure she may have saved $40, but she wasted several hours of her life”. I changed the topic, not wanting to admit that the crazy coupon game is another reality in our household - and an irresistible one at that. Yes it may take 2 very difficult hours (especially if there are kids in the cart), but how else can you spend $33 on $121 worth of groceries?? And why do I get a puzzled look from my husband instead of a high five?
The thing is, to me at least, as a (working part-time) SAHM, time is something I do not have, and yet it is all that I have. We made a mostly blind leap 5 years ago when we began our new lives as parents, and we made the decision to give up my lucrative consulting job. Instead of a regular paycheck, I vowed to make it work with creativity. I planned to start some sort of business from the ground up that I could flex around carpooling and cleaning spaghetti off the walls. And while my mastery of multi-tasking has reached impressive levels, 5 years and 3 kids later, it’s a good day here when we all have clean clothes, clean dishes and mommy gets a shower.
For now I’ll continue doing what I need to do to make it work. I’ll take on part-time, mind-numbing jobs that I can work in around the kids, I’ll clip coupons in carpool line and plot out my shopping to maximize my savings while minimizing my gas usage, I’ll sell last year’s toys one eBay to pad my Santa fund, I’ll sew and craft and create Pottery Barn knock-offs, and maybe I’ll even get a head start on tagging for spring (and seeking out a more pleasant overall consignment experience).
And most importantly, I’ll try to slow down more and enjoy these amazing little people at my feet.
I know it won’t be long before mom’s home-sewn dresses and consignment bargains are just not cool, and there won’t be enough coupons on the block for all the food they’ll devour.
Wow – gotta run! I could have organized my entire coupon stash in the time it took to write this!

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