What isn't

Miss me? All one of my readers? Apparently, I am too busy for soapboxes.

But, you all (one) are in luck. I have one to share. I was thinking about this, as I was scrubbing the strawberry smoothie one of my kids had managed to spray on the wall: No one is ever going to look at the wall and say, "Wow, there is a complete lack of strawberry smoothie smeared across that wall. Isn't it great?"

See, that's the problem with the work that mom's do. No one ever really knows what we isn't there. No one can ever know what accidents were prevented by a mother who just happened to grab that cup at the right time. No knows what tears were diverted when a mother happened to have a snack in her purse while waiting in a long line at snack time. It's the things that *don't* happen that take the most amount of work for us.

We recently heard that they are firing half of our police force. Why? Because "the crime rate doesn't warrant the budget for ." Think of it- What we are telling the police force here is that they are do such a good job, we are firing half of them. Nice, right? But, how do you gauge how many crimes didn't happen? There isn't a way.

Of course, take away the police force, and we may find out. Take away the mom, and you'll find out? Yes, there are all these stories about the Dad who takes the kids for three days, and "finds out how much the mother really does". Pa-tooey, not the case. Because, I'm willing to bet that that mother left the kids clean clothes to wear and food in the fridge. Besides, there is a whole slew of behavior issues that didn't happen for the dad, because the mother had already dealt with them in the past. (Disclaimer: I have an amazing husband who is involved in housework and discipline, and all that jazz. But, still, I'm the one home with the kids, so, by default, I get the bulk of it.) The problem is, you can't know what didn't happen.

It's a thankless job, not because people around us don't know to thank us, but because people don't know what to thank you for. I'd like to make a list of all the things that didn't happen, or that didn't show happened (like the smoothie incident) because I was there and taking care of it. The problem is, not even I know.

I'm sure you've heard the "Invisible Mom" story, right? It's worth the read if you haven't. I do like the message. I understand that God sees all the things that didn't happen, or were taken care of, because I was there. I get that He knows every mess that was cleaned up, every tear that was wiped, and every tantrum that was prevented.

Still, wouldn't it be great if someone could just say, "Wow, the kids didn't burn the house down today. Thank you!"