It IS a job and it is NOT easy.

A lot of my friends post these "blunt cards" on Facebook. They post them pretty often. Naturally, if I see one that it is hilarious or an absolute truth, I pass it along. Yesterday, this little gem was posted on my news feed.

I don't know who made it so I can't give credit. Sorry!

Now, I'm not going to just go around punching people in their faces with hammers. I'm not quite that violent. However! This is one of the best e-cards I've ever seen because it is absolutely spot on. If I had a dollar for every time I heard something like: "Oh, you stay home? I wish I could sit on the couch all day." "It must be nice to not have to work." "If you're home all the time, why isn't your house spotlessly clean?" "Well, you've only got one kid so you must have it pretty easy." "It isn't a real job because you don't make any money." Let's just say I would be filthy stinking rich.

And that makes me sad. While it is true that, unless she works from home, a stay-at-home mom doesn't make money, there are so many benefits that outweigh that lack of monetary income. To wake up every morning and be able to make my son breakfast, to be able to read to him and teach him throughout the day, to be able to know what he's doing at any given moment instead of wondering if he's crying in the daycare or if the teachers understand what he wants and needs, to be able to raise my own child through his infancy and toddlerhood mean more to me than having a little extra money.

I cannot adequately describe to you how frustrated I feel when I am told that I get to sit on the couch all day or that I'm so lucky that I don't have to work because being a stay-at-home mom must be so easy. This morning alone I had to calm down my boy because he wanted to walk up the apartment stairs on his own and when I was three steps behind him he freaked out and ran back down to start over twice, I got screamed at for walking out of the kitchen so I could sit down and eat my breakfast, I had to explain that turning the TV off means that Spongebob goes away and it was no fault of mine since Addison had turned it off himself - all of this before nine AM. That's not even including making sure he eats healthily, gets enough educational play, is clean, has a dry diaper on, and also keeping all the clothes laundered and put away, keeping the dishes washed, sweeping the dog hair out of the kitchen, vacuuming every other day to get the dog hair out of the carpet AND the general picking up and putting away of everything else in the house. (That's not including cleaning the bathroom because I absolutely hate cleaning the bathroom and do it as little as possible. Shhhh.)

Believe me, if being a stay-at-home mom was as easy as sitting at a computer in a cubicle all day, we all wouldn't be quite as offended when people accuse us of being lazy or incompetent. Until you know how hard it is to care for even one child all day and then be expected to keep up a house and have dinner on the table and tend to your spouse's needs, you have no idea how difficult it can be.

And, sure, there are some days where nothing gets done but playing with my boy and some days where I sit and read my own books at any given opportunity, but even adults that work 9-5 get at least one day off a week. Are stay-at-home moms not allowed that same break?

It seems like so much is expected of us that if we even slack off for one day, we are seen as lazy housekeepers, bad mothers, or worse. That is just not fair. We work our cute mommy butts off to take care of our kids, our house, our pets and our spouses.

Just don't forget: we have to take care of ourselves, too.

So, if you know a stay-at-home mom, before you accuse her of having a dirty house and before you tell her her job is so easy, try and step into her shoes for a minute and think about all that responsibility she carries.

And if you still say those things? You probably deserve to get hit with a hammer. Just sayin'.

-Mommy Michelle