"Mum of Two" wrote in message
...
Everyone here is so perfect! It seems you all wear your babies constantly,
co-sleep with them when you aren't wearing them, rock them for hours on
end
while they scream, and manage all this even with a dozen other children
besides and a successful career. Those of you who don't have a career
cook,
bake, make your own clothes, baby products, and are basically Martha
Stewart
minus the criminal record. Still others of you are _always right_ or at
least have an annoying way of posting which makes it appear that way to
everyone who reads you, myself included. Do you ever get hormonal,
overtired? What is your breaking point? Do you have one?

People comment to me on what a gentle, considerate, even-tempered mother I
am.

People do not see me totally losing my temper and snarling at children at
8pm when I Just Can't Take It Anymore.

People tell me what bright, outgoing children I have, and boggle at how I
juggle them all, and cooking, and sewing, and homeschooling.

People do not see how many hours of television a day my children watch.

People do not see my living room floor, which has not been vacuumed in quite
possibly 2 weeks. In fact, if someone came here, they *could* not see my
living room floor, because it's too cluttered.

People do see the dresses I have sewn (for $10), and compliment them. Those
would of course also compliment similar dresses that cost $45 in a
catalogue. But I can't afford them. My daughters like wearing dresses.
Shrug.

I cook. Cooking from scratch for a family of 6 costs a heck of a lot less
than pre-prepared meals. This is a matter of frugality and financial
survival, not perfection.

I cannot wear my baby. Every time I try, I wind up at the chiropractor's
office for a few hundred dollars' worth of bills not covered by insurance. I
co-sleep with my youngest out of desperation for sleep....

Why, exactly, do you call such things perfection? Is it your idea of
perfection? It isn't mine. It's just survival the best I know how.

--angela