Our choices belong to us

**
This post will seem a little disjointed, but it's because I'm tired, but I've needed to write this for a long time and I don't have much patience for editing.

It's moms whining. I'm whining about moms whining. I'm tired of people talking to moms like we are THE martyrs for our families. Like we are some sort of indentured servants with no choices. Examples are rampant, but in the interest of being not too mean I won't mention them specifically. But maybe you know what I mean: blog posts, daytime talk shows, morning news shows, newspapers and magazines...they are all full of stories about how much women, specifically mothers, sacrifice for their families and don't pay any attention to themselves.

If you listen to mainstream media, moms are always exhausted, overworked, under-appreciated, and we don't wear make-up. We're urged to schedule Me Time and Moms' Nights and Girlfriend Getaways. And we get pats on the back every time we take time or effort for ourselves...like it's nearly impossible to accomplish it.

So what about Dads?? Where's the sympathy for dads who work all day, too? And then come home and get henpecked by their work-all-day wives to chip in and help? Why don't we see articles on a regular basis encouraging hard-working men to take well-deserved golf outings once a week? We don't. Because we women would go nuts on them.

The fact is, women DO make choices. They choose their spouses, they choose whether to have children, and they choose whether to work outside the home or not. Choose, choose, choose...that's all we've done, and been encouraged to do, our whole adult lives.

Then we sit back and whine about how all our choices have made us exhausted and we don't have time for anything. So we say that a lot. "I don't have time..." or "I didn't have time to do that..." But the truth is we DO have time, we have just chosen to fill it with something else. Recently I have made a strong effort to say "I didn't make time for that..." Because that's more truthful for me. You think I "have time" to blog? NO! Most of the time when I sit down at the computer I can think of 47 other things that need to be done. But I take the time because it's important to me...it's my choice.

And another thing: moms aren't the only people who work hard out there. Women without kids can...surprise!...get tired and feel unappreciated, too. It's not a competition to see who has the most stressful life. I just get tired of reading and hearing about how women don't do enough for themselves. If that's true, friends, it's our choice, not our lot in life.

** I wrote this post a few days ago, then hurriedly took it down. I didn't want my haste to cause me to neglect a very important point, and that is I understand our lives are not entirely choices. Everyone has circumstances they've been dealt. My gripe is not with people dealing with their circumstances, it's with people creating circumstances and then spending their lives wailing about them.

Okay...tirade over.

Can someone please tell a joke now?