Chronicles of a SAHM

Our guest contributor, Aditi Chaturvedi, shares her journey from being a professional to a stay-at-home parent. To read her bio, click here.

When I first read The Sweater, I knew I wanted to write something about my parenting journey too.

It took me a while to decide the topic of the write-up. I was confused between writing about being a tired, frustrated (yet happy) mother and being an ex working professional turned SAHM.

It takes a while for the feeling to sink in that I need to remove the “working professional” tag from my name. I have been a SAHM since 6 years now, and am a full time mother of 2 adorable girls… who always get on my nerves at the least expected time.

When once I used to handle big projects like Shanghai Metro and Delhi Metro, now I handle potty calls at times when there are no washrooms or clean ones nearby. Once when I handled deadlines for the projects, now I handle deadlines for bed times on school nights.

My day used to start with an extensive management meeting and now I wake up to cradle my crying, sleepy babies on each arm.

Working lunches in crisp clothes turned into dodging projectile vomit, wearing 3 day old multi-stained husband t-shirts as I couldn’t find the time to comb my hair or iron my own shirt.

And the pregnancy weight gain? That’s a topic for another time.

But as my younger one turned 1.5 years old, I contemplated restarting my career, which got me collecting lot of input from various sources. I finalized upon doing a certification.

Now, as the picture depicts, the books have been lying on my dresser since 10 days, amassing a good amount of dust.

This morning, I thought of giving them a once over and when I saw, I knew how it’d go.

I knew, with the hairband lying on top of them, who trumps what.

My messy, needy, cranky babies who light up my world like it was all dark before them do. Whose words, when they say “Ma”, sound like a serene bell in my heart that makes me seem content and complete.

Work must wait.

Are you a SAHM too? How did you deal with the transition from being a professional to a stay-at-home mama?