I am a SAHM to two young children. I find it exhausting and while I know it's the best option practically and financially for us (as well as being better for the kids), I still miss the escape and mental stimulation (though not the impossible balancing act) of work.
My husband does understand this, but still makes a lot of jokes about "not knowing what I do all day" and how "glamourous" my lifestyle is. Yesterday, I had ten minutes of him teasing me about how I'd hidden the prosecco glasses before he came home after another SAHM had been over for a playdate with her son. We didn't drink prosecco - we drank tea and talked about her sister who has cancer in between trying to stop the kids from trashing the living room.
I know I should just grow a sense of humour, and I know he's never taken anything in life particularly seriously (irronically, it's one if the things I love about him) but honestly, the constant joshing makes me feel like he sees my life as one big hilarious cliché. I just wish he could occasionally find a way to give me some unprompted, genuine, sincere praise about what I do and how I'm raising the children. I've tried to make him understand that without work, I have little in my life to boost my self esteem so he needs to take a genuine interest sometimes rather than spinning everything into a quip, but it's like talking to a brick wall. He shrugs, tells me that's just how he is, reassures me I am OF COURSE doing a brilliant job of being a Mum and I have no reason to ever doubt that, and then... Just carries on like before.
This isn't the only thing he teases me about (by a long stretch) but it's the one that hurts the most. He's a good person, a great Dad and in no way abusive or deliberately unkind. Sometimes SAH motherhood IS hilarious in its absurdity or mundanity. But mostly it's just plain knackering and he can't seem to get that it's irritating for it to be made light of, or portrayed as some kind of "ladies who lunch" style jolly (when he knows full well it's not). AIBU here?