What do you DO all day?

I just read a blog detailing what a particular stay at home mum does with her time. It made me feel a bit guilty to be honest. Because...she DUSTS! And reads EIGHT stories a day! And cooks nutritious meals every day for her toddler from scratch. And she has a little bubba as well.

Holy cow.

So here's how a typical "stay at home" day goes for me (and I use the term loosely because I rarely stay at home for the whole day).

I wake up when Cate wakes up. On a ripper day, this is at 7am or later. Most days it's somewhere closer to 6am. We 'snuggle' in my bed for a while (except there's not much snuggling...there's lots more 'crawling over mum whilst she tries to desperately grab a few extra moments of sleep'. Oh and there's 'playing with the portable phone' which Justin says is bad and some mornings there's even 'smashing the alarm clock into Mum's face or into the wall'. Yup, you read that right).

After 'snuggle' time, it's 'getting up and getting organised' time. This involves changing Cate's drenched night nappy, tidying Cate's room, tidying my room, putting the first load of washing on and hand washing the bottles. I always feel better once these things are done as the house usually looks semi-normal by this stage. Cate reaquaints herself with her toys, books and walker during this time...she also pulls out drawers, players with the knob on the dryer and usually does her first poo of the day.

Then I have internet time and Cate joins me...usually the only time of day she will play happily with the upstairs toys whilst I get net time. Today I let her climb up and down the stairs whilst I checked facebook. This is latest skill and she's getting very good at it, but I'm not sure it's the type of skill I'll be bragging about at Mother's Group any time soon ("Guess what? My 14 month old can climb the stairs ALL BY HERSELF! Hold the calls to Child Protection Services please!").

Breakfast time for us both, Cate eats toast solo these days which is a welcome relief as me feeding her Weetbix used to take half an hour. After breakfast I put on washing load number two, take out the rubbish, run the dishwasher and try to ignore the floors (on the days I can no longer ignore the floors, I sweep and vaccum. Actual washing of the kitchen floor takes place once every two months maybe, if the floor is lucky).

Then we play. I get down on the floor with Cate and we read and play with some toys, tickle and cuddle and even play chasey some days. My latest trick has been whizzy dizzies to the Glee soundtrack followed by wild dancing from mother and daughter (this morning, the dancing got too wild and Cate threw up. Note to self: go easy of the whizzy dizzies after the morning bottle. Der). This play time lasts for maybe ten mins tops. I know. See why I was feeling so slack as compared with super mum mentioned above?

We hang the washing out and Cate explores the garden. Then it's time for the one TV show I think it okay...In The Night Garden. Cate watches for maybe five minutes on a good day...then she scrambles around the floor with the walker whilst I spend my time screaming out things like "Look at the Tombliboos!". I am quickly developing a freaky amount of love for those crazy little Tombliboos and my hatred of the Pontypines os becoming overwhleming. I need to stop, turn off the TV and back away.

Nap time is at 9.30am sharp. Ha, poor sucker I'm only up to describing the first 3.5hours of my day!!!!

On a good day Cate sleeps for two hours. I shower BY MYSELF (amazing!), dress, surf the net, read, make phone calls and, when I am having people over (and ONLY then), I may quickly wipe the bathrooms and clean the toilets. I used to be anal about the state of my house, now I am very much in the "close enough is good enough camp". So sue me!

On a bad day, Cate won't nap at all. I then have to share my shower and usually, all I feel like doing is napping myself (which I will do if I have had a bad night with Cate and she's napping herself. May as well suck it up as I don't think it will be happening if we manage to produce baby number two!).

After nap time is when we usually have our adventure. Cate and I leave the house pretty much every single day. I go crazy if I am at home with her, inside, all day. So we go to my mum's, my sister's, mother's group, my girlfriend's or we just go for a walk, to the park or off to do the food shopping. Outside is Cate's favourite place right now but I struggle (read as "can't be bothered fighting anymore") to get her to wear a hat so it's got to be shaded space. This cuts out a lot of places!

By 5pm we're usually back home and it's the dinner time dance. Cate has been off her food lately so this can be a struggle. Most days I end up giving her a selection of things to try for herself which makes an unholy mess...but at least she eats something this way.

Then it's bath and bed. I could stretch this sucker out for longer but I'm done! (and I haven't even mentioned taking the washing off the line, folding it and putting it away, nor have I gone anywhere near cooking dinner or socialising with my hubby once he walks in exhausted from his day).

I don't do too badly I know that. But I am not Cate's ultimate slave either...she fits in with ME and what I am doing (most of the time). Yes, I have to make concessions for her and yes, I do spend some time specifically 'teaching' her... but most days, we just get by living life. Not a perfect mother then...but a happy mum for sure. And you know what? I've got happy girl to prove that I'm not doing so badly...dirty floor and all ;)