I have had a taste this week of how my life would be if I were a SAHM...

[MrsSchadenfreude]

...I am off work, looking after DD1 who is Unwell. My days have involved a lot of toast, at least one packet of jammy dodgers and buckets of tea. I have done exciting tasks like clean the dishwasher, wash the kitchen floor and fold up washing. I have discovered the "delights" of daytime TV (what is this obsession with property and making a bit of money from old tat?) and Jeremy Kyle. I have an exciting trip to the post office to post a parcel and buy some milk. I had a limited exchange with the man in the post office and a lady who was buying a paper, in which we all agreed that it was cold and hoped it wouldn't kill off the daffs. I had a more limited exchange with the man who came to mend the dishwasher. ("Broken again, has it? Same thing as last three times? Mary next door gone out, has she?")

Is this it? Am I missing something? What do people do all day for excitement/interest if they don't work and their children are at school? Because, quite frankly, I am miaowing with boredom here. DD1 has spent most of the time asleep (poor love) and I am itching to get back to work. I am now debating whether to start the ironing, have a nap or polish the hall floor. None of these options fill me with joy. But I suppose if I do them now then I won;t have to do them at the weekend.

It is dull I agree...that is why I have just found a job.

I could fill my days doing housework but frankly I would rather not.

I agree being stuck at home with sick children is the pits.

I have toddlers so slightly different but our days are filled. You HAVE to get out every day and speak to adults that is a must. Summer is much easier than Winter, I love being a SAHM in the Summer. I love being in the park or just the back garden playing with the DDs thinking "I could be stuck in a boring meeting in an office right now" Total swings and roundabouts though some days I would quite like to be in an office.

Agree with everyone who says this is not a taste of life as a SAHM - your child is ill. The only time I have pulled my hair out with boredom was the week dd at chickenpox at 2.5. I don't watch daytime tv or do much housework

DD now at pre-school 3 longish mornings a week (that is to say their length is long - it certainly doesn't feel long !). I spend the time running, shopping, doing admin and stuff that is so much easier to do without dd in tow.

I worked in a professional role in the city and being a SAHM is far more interesting !!

Hippipotami - you do make it sound lovely!

I am giving up city job that I am not enjoying to be SAHM to my 2 toddlers. But very worried because I am quite lazy but in a contradictory way get very fed up if I don't feel like I'm achieving anything. Feel at risk of hating myself for endless mumsnetting and tea drinking. I know I need to go out and socialise with the children and am planning to do that but I think I need to plan to do do something for myself too - upholstery course or similar!

I know, it is lovely...

And I am very very very lucky. My dh's work involves complicated shift patterns and unpredictable on-call rotas. So we decided that if I went out to work aswell it would all be too chaotic. So to enable dh to do his job (he is an engineer) I chose SAHM-dom.

It is wonderful, but only if you have structure to your time. So scheduled activities, be they classes for the dc or things for you, and regular contact with other adults.
My worst times were indeed when the dc were ill - being housebound with nothning but small children for company was a struggle. But when life is in full swing it is lovely.

What a patronising post, mrs sch

I didn't think it was patronising, more a genuine question, actually.

I've not read the thread very carefully, but I'm not sure my opinion has been given by anyone else, yet: Sometimes being a SAHM is quite boring. Everything feels a bit routine and humdrum; housework never ends, blah blah blah. But at other times being a SAHM is great - I have freedom to spend sunny days in the park; I can get boring menial tasks done during nap time so we can spend time when everyone's at home having fun; I can do a class at college if I feel like it. There are perks.

I'm sure that if I had a job outside the house, I'd feel the same way - sometimes it would be great, sometimes it wouldn't. That's life.

I been a SAHM for 16 years. Never get bored. Home educate the kids and full time carer for a severely disabled child.
I wouldn't mind the 'break' work provided to be honest but you can't get childcare for a disabled child.
When dd (4) finally goes to school (and my teenagers have decided to give school a try) full time (although I'm expecting lots of sick days) I intend to spend the first year playing computer games, watching all the films I haven't had a chance to see and getting in some cycling. Can't wait!

I do teh odd bit of work from home but am mostly a SAHM with kids at school. I go swimming, I read the newspaper, I help at school (a lot), am Parent Gov, I meet friends - there are days I'm bored silly but they're quite seldom.

I sooo agree with the posters who have observed that a child who is a'bed and sleepy is undemanding and that week is not typical of sahm existence.

I am able to organize my time and can fit in fun stuff - I especially enjoy reading at lunchtime now my DD is at school - something I have not had time to do since I was at work .
I think the trouble the op is that it seems to me to be an obvious grenade lobbed at an always contentious theme (personally don't mind but people do get very heated) and it does attempt to relate a very specific experience to the whole of the sahm experience - which it clearly is not.
It would be a bit like posting " I went to work with xxx, sat at a desk, listened to them talking, scratched my arse, had lunch - frickin hell this work thing is a lark isn't it"
Being at home for a week does not give you a sahm experience.
Personally I would kill for a week like the one described. If anyone wants to come and SAHM with three children at three different school, one with profound special needs that requires a totally home cooked , home baked diet - just give me a call. ( oh and it is actually easier now as my DD has just started full time schooling).
I loved being at work. I love being at home.
I am very happy for other people to make their choice.

I agree with others that this isn't a true reflection esp with a lo ill.

I have dd (2.6 yrs) and ds (1 yr) and tbh I never stop.!

I have:

Monday: supermarket shopping (stuff not got online)

Tue: baby gym

Wed: music

Thurs:cleaning

friday: allow me to spend 100% with dd and ds. (usually go for a walk, play games, visit friends etc)

Yeah I come on mn BUT only when the lo's are asleep. Never have time before that!

I love being a sahm and love the fact that when the sun is shining im not stuck in an office waiting till 5pm . Im ususally at the park or feeding the ducks .

Mrs S - you are choosing quite boring things to do . I think even the most dedicated sahm would struggle to get excited about cleaning the dishwasher and hanging up some coats.

MrsS what a patronising opening post

You'd better rush off to your impotant job as soon as your dd is better and leave the boring stuff to the mums who think being at home with their kids makes up for everything

you're missing friends

I think I would love being a SAHM much more if DD was at school! I'd go to the gym, read the papers, do a course.

As it is she is 8 months and I am pulling my hair out with boredom until I go back to work in April. I don't think MrsS is being patronising. I'm just relieved that I am not the only one not getting any housework done either!

why so defensive? I wouldn't get defensive if SAHM went off to work and posted saying "working in an office is really dull - how do you cope with it?"

Working in an office can be dull as can staying at home. Until you get more settled in your job and get the boring bits done more quickly and concentrate on theineresting bits. And as Twigg says you makesome friends.

Are we all supposed to pretend our home/work choices are absolutely brilliant all of the time?!

Your first mistake was watching Jeremy Kyle.

MrsS - your week is hardly representative of a week of SAHMdom. Your week is just a non-week, because (a) you are stuck at home with an ill child (b) you don't have organised and/or regular and stimulating activities that any normal SAHM would do. Plus you seem to be using the opportunity of being stuck indoors to catch up on boring tasks - understandably, but that's hardly riveting stuff.

I think the quickest way to go insane as a SAHM is to watch daytime tv and not go out. So your week is definitely not the normal SAHM week. We tend to be out and about and then doing things pretty much all the time without realising it, just the sort of normal stuff of life with a few nice activities and meetups with friends thrown in. I sort of found that if you are a SAHM mum all the time you learn what there is around you like pool opening times, nice walks, just stuff to do really. Then some times a free chunk of day to do nothing is lovely. Its nice to let the quietness seep in and just let your home cocoon you, its amazing how much time my dd will spend talking to inanimate objects and making up stories and playing whilst I sort of do nothing but think and let my brain catch up.

Someone tittered at me pityingly once about being a SAHM.
"But what do you dooooooo?"
me: "Well, a lot of poker and whisky mornings."
Titterer: "Noooooo" (Titterer with loooooong vooooweeeels)
me: "Well, no, poker and gin in the summer."

She told half the village Some Germans take me very literally

LOL at this thread. I'm on maternity leave for a year and so am at home with my 5 week old. My day seems to consist of;

change nappy
feed
put dd down to sleep
run downstairs and boil kettle
run back upstairs to pick up crying dd
rock dd to sleep
put dd down
run downstairs to reboil kettle
run back upstairs to pick up crying dd
change nappy
feed
give up and bring dd downstairs and put down to sleep
reboil kettle
pick up and soothe crying dd...

Do you see where I am going with this?! Argh, why did I say I'd take a year???