The Lucky Ones

I think that sometimes when you are a stay at home mom you lose perspective of the outside world. Especially when your children are small your world revolves around these little people who are depending on you for their survival. I feel like when I am reminded of all that is going on in the outside world I remember just how lucky I am. So when the kids are fighting, not sleeping, destroying things, when school costs a lot of money and I don’t have enough down time I need to remember all that I have:

• In 2010 there were about 925 million hungry people in the world. So when you don’t feel like making dinner that the kids are going to complain about anyway… remember you are lucky to have food to feed your children. Imagine looking your hungry children in the eye and telling them you have nothing for them to eat.

• It’s been hot here lately, about 100 degrees most days, but in Iraq this last week they had to actually shut down the government because it was over 120 degrees. Imagine being a US soldier in all that army gear, always having to watch your back and trudging around in 120 degree weather. Yeah I guess I can put up with my 100 degree days in my nice safe air conditioned house.

• 40% of the homeless population in the United States is made up of families with children. I not only have a nice clean, safe house to give my children where they have their own rooms, I am afforded the chance to stay at home with them. I never wake up in the morning wondering where I am going to sleep that night. My kids know that they always have somewhere safe to go.

Parenting is hard no matter where you are or what you have, but if you have a home and food and time to spend with your children you are luckier than a huge amount of people in this world. So when I start to feel overwhelmed I am going to try to have some perspective and realize just how lucky we are.