Before I became a flight attendant the only thing I knew
about them was that they served drinks and peanuts. My access to seeing one in
person was limited to the three or four flights I’d ever taken in my life and
then the once or twice I’d see them during said flight. I thought the job was
easy, something that required little skill and a love of traveling. Three weeks
of training and over 9 years of flying thousands of flights has proved me
wrong. I guess my takeaway from my previous school of thought was you never
really know what a job entails until you’ve tried it on for size yourself. So
to all those flight attendants whose job I thought was solely to cater to me
when I needed a frosty beverage, I’m sorry.
While I’m apologizing here’s a list of other women whose
jobs I took for a cakewalk: stay-at-home moms, working moms, single moms and
married moms. At one point or another I’ve been all of these things and none of
them are easy roles. Perhaps the women who do them make it look easy but I can
assure you, behind the Instagram and facebook photos it’s not. I’m sorry for
ever thinking it was.
To the stay-at-home mom, I once wondered what the hell you
did all day. I never quite understood how anyone who had the privilege of
staying home with their kids (and to me it was a privilege not to have to punch
a time card) could possibly complain. I believed your days were filled with
trips to the zoo and swims at the pool. I thought it unfair you were able to
nurse whenever you wanted without the annoyance of finding a time and place to
pump because you never had to leave your baby at home. Your home cooked meals,
strawberry picking and story time at the library days were the envy of someone
who could barely find time to shower, get to work and make sure enough
milk/baby food was in stock for the daycare or nanny. Though I fly and teach
yoga and fitness I also have days where I have nothing scheduled for work and I
find myself planning my idyllic stay-at-home-mom day. “I’m going to get so much
done,” I think. Maybe I’ll even cook dinner.
Reality is I’m putting out small fires all day. When
Charlotte was an infant my days consisted of feeding and diaper changing and
maybe shaving my legs or putting on makeup. Now that she’s older it’s like
having a tornado in the house. I put laundry in the washer and she’s playing in
the toilet. I clean up breakfast mess and she’s fallen down and crushed a
handful of crackers into the carpet. I vacuum and she’s climbing up the stairs.
We go to play in her room and every book comes off the shelf. Time for a diaper
change (which is kind of like trying to stick a cat in a bathtub if you want to
know) and then naptime rolls around (FINALLY!). If she doesn’t nap at home I
have a cranky baby but if she does I’m on house arrest for 2-3 hours where I
take the time to get her lunch ready, maybe get myself ready and if I’m lucky
practice some yoga. Once the princess wakes up it’s back to waiting on her hand
and foot and before I know it the husband is at home wondering, “What did you
do all day?”
Staying at home with your child means you get nothing and
everything done all at once. It’s a blur of cleaning, feeding, soothing a
crying baby and in-between trying to teach them something educational so they aren’t
completely inept. It’s exhausting and I salute those of you who have more than
one child and that is your daily existence.
When you stay at home, working seems a little glamorous. You
are nobody’s mom for the hours you are at work and you don’t have snot stains
all over your clothing and yogurt in your hair. When I’d work with people that
had kids I use to think to myself, “this must be such a nice break for you to
get out of the house!” It is, to an extent. When I’m working I sometimes feel
like I’m on a mini vacation. I leave to teach yoga and I can linger after class
with my students and talk uninterrupted. When I’m flying I can eat lunch
whenever I want, eat what I want and don’t have to worry about bath time and
the only person I have to put to sleep is myself. Yet who always shows up at
your door while you’re working? Guilt.
I’ll admit the guilt was far worse when Charlotte was under
a year old. When I wasn’t with her I was tethered to my pump and I’d constantly
worry that I’d left her without enough food to survive. I mentally counted the
hours until I’d be home from flying, teaching or working out as if the less I
was gone the better mother I’d be. Paying a nanny to do my “job” seemed asinine
yet we couldn’t afford for me not to work. I’d have a sinking feeling each time
I left the house without Charlotte and I started to resent my job for taking me
away from her. Why did I have to work when other women didn’t? It never seemed
fair. From pumping in bathrooms, to staying up late to make lunches for school,
organizing backpacks and keeping a calendar just so you know who’s picking up
who…I truly admire all working moms out there. Dealing with a tiny boss then
going out into the world and dealing with an adult boss is no small feat.
My husband is on call once every 7 weeks and for that week
he can be called in to his job anytime day or night. Since I’m usually the one
flying nights, he’s gotten in the habit of taking care of Charlotte when she
wakes up in the morning. By the time I come home in the morning she’s been
changed, fed and is usually back down for a nap which makes my mornings pretty
easy. I try to sneak a nap in so I’ll be well rested for the following night of
flying. When Chad’s on call though I have to stay home from flying so that someone
is there when and if he gets called in the middle of the night. So there are
days when I play single mom and I’m with Charlotte from the time she wakes up
until sometimes the hour she goes to bed. I realize just how much my husband
does and how easy this is to take for granted until you are alone with your
child. If you’ve ever had your spouse leave for a day, week or longer you know
exactly what I mean. One weekend Chad flew back to Michigan because his
grandmother was ill and I didn’t even leave the house and ordered enough pizza
to last me through the weekend. When you are alone with your child there’s no
one to pass them off to when they are crying, no one to clean up dinner while
you start the bath, no one to watch them at the pool when you want to take a
dip in and no one to pick up a pack of diapers on the way home. You become
excellent at multi-tasking however and become acutely aware of just how much
free help is around if you ask. We don’t have family that lives in town so our
friends have become ever important in assisting us when necessary. I inherently
knew being a single mother wasn’t easy but I’ll admit there were moments in the
beginning when Chad and I would argue about Charlotte and how we thought she
should be taken care of…and the thought occurred to me, “this would be easier
alone.” Sometimes raising a baby seemed like riding a horse and there were two
people trying to sit in the saddle and steer with both thinking their direction
was right.
One of my greatest take-a-ways from becoming a parent is
that everything seems easier when you aren’t the one doing the job. There is
always that sense that someone else has it better than we do or that if we were
the ones in the saddle we’d be able to do it better. Our perceptions are skewed
because we only see what others want us to see which is often barely a glimpse
into their daily lives. Most days between three jobs, one child, keeping house
and a husband, I’m barely keeping my head above water. Anytime we take on
another role in life I think this becomes the case.
So let’s just all admit that really we’re doing the best we
can and the fact is no one has it easy.
Flight attendants don’t just serve cokes….they’re there to
save your ass if and when you ever need it….and I’d like to think moms, all
types of moms, are the same way.
