Husband Told His Stay-At-Home Wife She 'Does Nothing All Day' So She Texted Him A Play-By-Play Of Her Day
Unfortunately, many working parents do not understand the demanding responsibilities of stay-at-home mothers.
KrakenImages / Unsplash Any stay-at-home mother will tell you that their daily tasks are demanding and they certainly don’t spend their days doing “nothing.” Whether it’s cooking, tending to and cleaning up after the children or managing school drop-offs and pick-ups, they are always on their feet.
Unfortunately, non-stay-at-home parents often do not understand the everyday responsibilities of stay-at-home mothers — which is why one woman decided to show her husband just how difficult her job was in a series of hilarious photos and text messages.
The stay-at-home mom gave her husband a play-by-play of her daily responsibilities.
“My husband made a joke that he thinks I sleep all day whilst he’s at work and I’m doing nothing,” stay-at-home mom Maisha wrote in the text overlay of a TikTok video. “So I sent him a play-by-play of what I do in a day.”
The woman includes a screen recording of text messages and photos between her and her husband while he is at work and she is at home minding their infant son, Noah.
Some of the tasks include washing and drying bottles, washing the sink, reorganizing the refrigerator and wiping down table tops, which may seem effortless on the surface. However, when you add a fussy baby who doesn't nap well into the mix, it can be overwhelming. Maisha had to jump between doing laundry, changing diapers, feeding the baby and attempting to get him to nap while cleaning up the messes that were left behind as a result.
She added that she did not even get a chance to brush her teeth until noon, since all of her duties were completed in a span of a couple of hours.
Maisha’s husband got the message, responding with laughing emojis as he realized that his perception of his wife’s daily routine was mistaken.
In fact, a survey found that stay-at-home moms work the equivalent of two and a half full-time jobs.
It’s true that stay-at-home mothers do more than we think. According to a survey conducted by Welch's, stay-at-home moms work an average of 14 hours a day, which equates to a 98-hour workweek. And considering all of that work goes unpaid — and underappreciated — it's clear that we all need to do better when it comes to recognizing the vital role stay-at-home parents play in society.
“We see [Mom] as the compilation of 10 jobs in one person,” Evilee Ebb, general manager of Salary.com, said in an interview with Forbes. "The breadth of Mom’s responsibilities is beyond what most workers could ever experience day-to-day," Ebb added, noting that in a survey, Salary.com found that moms should be paid $115,000 per year for all that they do, which they said could be broken down into titles and duties including "Day Care Center Teacher, CEO, Psychologist, Cook, Housekeeper, Laundry Machine Operator, Computer Operator, Facilities Manager, Janitor and Van Driver."
Luckily Maisha and her husband can find the humor in their situation and, certainly, neither seems to be taking the exchange too seriously. But hopefully, Maisha’s husband — and all other working parents — consider these facts before making assumptions about the stay-at-home parent's day-to-day life!
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.