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Toddling Through the Silicon Valley

By Cheryl Bac

E-mail Cheryl Bac

About this blog: I'm a wife, stay-at-home mom, home cook, marathon runner, and PhD. I recently moved to the Silicon Valley after completing my PhD in Social Psychology and becoming a mother one month apart. Before that, I ran seven marathons incl...  (More)

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No Two Exactly Alike

Uploaded: Mar 8, 2014
Recently, I've bumped into a lot of articles about "what stay at home parents do all day." Most include a laundry list of chores, interruptions, volunteer work, guilt and sleep-deprivation.

What fails to come across in many of these posts is that, like working parents, our daily lives vary dramatically from one another depending on the number and age of our children, our desire to leave the house, our comfort level for checking out new venues, etc. Although the hours are not so flexible, how you spend them is ultimately up to you, your spouse, and your children.

When my son was still young enough to want to be carried all day, we spent ample time with other new moms walking downtown, relaxing at vineyards, chatting at coffee shops and playing with our babies in each other's living rooms. I rarely spent the entire day at home because both my son and I were more content being active, out of the house and socializing. But I know some new mothers who would have hated this constant activity. They greatly preferred to spend the majority of these early days at home. One of the many perks of staying at home is being able to choose how you spend your day, and if for some reason it isn't working for you and your family, you can easily switch it up.

So what do you do all day? Do you sign up for music class or attend less structured park dates? Do you stick to a rigid schedule or a more flexible one? Do you socialize with other parents frequently, occasionally or rarely? Being able to make these choices is one of the many perks of the "job." What do we do all day? What my son and I want to do. We meet up with friends (both his and my own), go to museums, read endless truck books on the couch, make many messes, and continually search for new activities to try.
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Comments

Posted by Mother of 4, a resident of Palo Verde School,
on Mar 8, 2014 at 9:54 pm

Enjoy it while you have it, because I promise you it will not be the same when you have a second or once kindergarten sets in. You will then wonder when the unstructured time has gone, because it goes. The time you have with your first is precious because it is your first and the time is a luxury never to be repeated.


Posted by Cheryl Bac, a Palo Alto Online blogger,
on Mar 9, 2014 at 12:04 am

Cheryl Bac is a registered user.

Mother of 4- What a great reminder for all of us parents. Thank you for reading and commenting.


Posted by PR, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood,
on Mar 13, 2014 at 6:35 pm

This is a wonderful blog, Cheryl, thank you!


Posted by Cheryl Bac, a Palo Alto Online blogger,
on Mar 13, 2014 at 8:01 pm

Cheryl Bac is a registered user.

PR - Thank you! Such a nice comment. So great to hear that you are enjoying my blog.


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