Addicted Moms

I heard about this article from Working Mothers Magazine while listening to the radio the other day - more and more mothers are using alcohol and drugs to deal with the ever increasing demands of every day life. http://www.workingmother.com/BestCompanies/special-report/2010/10/addicted-moms-drink-drugs

While the article focuses on moms who work in high profile professions, moms that otherwise appear to have it all together, I think it is a wake up call for all moms across America.

Hearing stats like "1 out of every 4 kids has an alcoholic parent" is enough to make me cry.

I am a stay-at-home mom and proud of it, but being a full-time mom has its fair share of stress. I never have enough time to clean my house, keep up with the laundry, or fulfill all my duties as school and church volunteer. I go to be each night completely exhausted, and yes, I all too often feel like I'm going to lose it - and sometimes I do - for an hour or two, until my daughter comes to my rescue with that contraband 1 lb. bag of M&Ms.

So I can't even begin to comprehend how a mother can balance a full-time job AND all the responsibilities of being a wife and mother. There is simply nothing funny about the corporate powerhouse mom who died along with most of her children in a car accident because she was drunk and high.

I have to wonder if this is what the Women's Rights Movement intended. Yes, we women can have it all, do it all, but at what price? I for one don't want it all, don't need it all. I get stress. I get pressure. I get depression. That's part of being a human being living a human life, but if our lives are so busy, so "together" that we're really falling apart, then what we're really doing is throwing it all away.

What soothes my nerves best at the end of a hectic day is not a cup of wine or a pill, but spending half an hour with my two-year-old on my lap reading through a stack of picture books. Oh, and that extra handful of M&Ms doesn't hurt...does it?