An executive director on TikTok is explaining that being a SAHM to two kids for 18 months was so much harder than her day job is now
It all started with a TikTok video where a creator revealed her dream job: Being a SAHM. “Is anyone else’s dream job to become a stay-at-home wife/mom?” she wrote over the video, where she wistfully talked about “baking some cute little muffins” and “buying some throw pillows.” Stay-at-home moms who are reading this, take a deep breath. It’s OK. Another mom already did it for you.
A former SAHM who now works as an executive director stitched the video to explain the difference in difficulty between staying home with two kids and running a whole-ass company. And guess which one was harder? By a lot?
“OK, so no hate to this creator, because I used to have the same thought process,” Shay, who goes by @shayjo21 on TikTok, explained. “I couldn’t wait to have kids so I could stay home with them. I thought staying at home with my kids would be the best job ever because I thought it was easy. Because what did I see? Moms on social media making it look easy.”
@shayjo21 My little “executive director” job aint shit compared to me staying home for 18months with my two children!!and thats on mary had a little lamb #stayathomemom #fypシ゚viral #familytok
♬ original sound – Shay
She continued, “But the key factor of that fantasy was I didn’t have kids yet, and I can tell by her description she doesn’t have kids. Because she said something about baking muffins with children, buying throw pillows, and organizing her fridge like she sees on TikTok. Let me tell you something: That’s 30 seconds of someone’s life.”
The moms in the audience are silently applauding right now.
Shay kept going: “Bake a muffin with a child. Have you met a child, first of all, because if you’ve met a child, then you know that’s a bad idea because I’ve tried it. I baked muffins with my kids, and my daughter had flour in her hair for a week. Throw pillows? What’s a throw pillow? My son punches them, kicks them.”
She then dropped the real truth of it all: “Being a SAHM is hard work. I’m a girl boss… and my stay-at-home experience was way harder than any job in management that I’ve ever had. Period. My job is structured. I know exactly what I’m going to walk into. Being a SAHM was exhausting. It was repetitive. It was lonely. And I had a supportive partner who worked from home and was right there. He helped me out with the kids greatly, but it was still hard work.”
She ended her video, “To all my SAHMs out there, I could never do what you do. I couldn’t do it. It is a hard job. And if you’re fantasizing about it, it’s because you don’t have children. Clearly, you’ve never met a child. Have a couple kids, and then let us know how that worked out.”
Amen, mom.