Working Mom Says Office Life Is 'So Much Easier' Than Staying Home With Kids
Kids have you working with no pay from sun up until sun down.
@imperfectalignment / TikTok / @ssstorresan / Instagram Parents often debate which lifestyle is the easier one: being a stay-at-home parent or being a working parent.
Many of us may assume that being the stay-at-home parent would be the better of the two since there is no pressure to earn a paycheck, you have the option of staying in pajamas all day and you never have to worry about beating traffic home.
However, those of us who believe this may have it all wrong.
One mother who lives both lives by being the stay-at-home parent for some of the week and going into the office the remainder of the week is explaining why she believes leaving the house for work is the easier option of the two.
The mother claims that going to work allows her to have adult conversations, alone time in the car, and the chance to be more productive.
Sarah Torreson, an Australian mother of two, took to her TikTok account to list the benefits of being a working parent, and why it is easier for her to go into the office than stay at home with her children.
She was answering the question as to which parent deserves more sleep, the stay-at-home one or the working one.
“I feel like I’m qualified to speak on this because I have both working days and stay-at-home Mondays,” she says. “I want to tell you something that the working parent probably doesn’t want stay-at-home parents to know.”
Torreson admits that going to work is “so much easier” than staying at home with the kids. She shares that this is because on her work days, she gets to spend an hour alone in the car during the commute listening to her preferred music and podcasts uninterrupted.
She gets to walk through the city, grab a coffee, have adult conversations with her coworkers, and use parts of her brain that she has not used in a while.
By the time the day is over, she is ready to return home to her family. “[By that time] I miss my kids and can’t wait to see them and they can’t wait to see me either,” she says.
On the other hand, when Torreson stays home with the kids, the day is much more difficult for her.
“When you’re at home alone with the kids for days on end, you might go days without having a normal human conversation,” she explains. “From the second you open your eyes in the morning until you close them at night..you are putting out fires for the most insanely irrational things.”
She says that being a stay-at-home parent means that your needs are pushed aside and it is always about what everyone else around you wants. This means you get little to no alone time, no hot coffee, and no adult interactions.
“Most stay-at-home parents would dream of sitting in the car for 45 minutes and listening to a podcast or drinking a hot coffee with a co-worker,” she points out.
“If I had a choice between staying at home with the kids or working after a rough night ... I would choose a work day EVERY TIME,” Torreson captioned her video.
Other stay-at-home and working parents agreed with Torreson’s points.
“Work is my paid break from SAHM [stay-at-home mom] job,” one TikTok user commented.
“I have a 5:30-9 kid job, 9-4 bank job, and 4-8 kid job. My husband has a long commute, it’s mostly just me. Work is the break,” another user admitted.
“Agreed! I take walks during lunch and listen to my favorite podcast. My kids are at an age now where I have to beg them to take a walk and I can’t leave them at home,” another user shared.
“I MUCH prefer getting things done without my kids around… and so get paid. Also, I can use the bathroom in private at work.”
However, other parents believed that staying at home was the easier option.
“I’m a SAHM [stay-at-home mom] and it is 100x easier than work,” one user wrote. “Sure it has challenges but it’s basically a holiday for me.”
“I disagree. Maybe it’s because I work in aged care but staying home with my kids is easier for me than working,” another user revealed.
“I so disagree. I missed my daughter's first steps and I do so much running around at work,” another user commented.
Other working parents shared that they do not find going to work to be relaxing.
“Pretty true but also depends on the type of work the parent is doing too…some jobs are a literal busy h–l scape and there is no downtime between
“Even at work I'm STILL doing the mental load about everything I need to do once I clock off,” another user shared.
Whether you’re a working parent or a stay-at-home parent, we can all agree that raising children is exhausting either way, and all parents could benefit from a few extra hours of sleep.
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.