Kudos to all moms!
I have given many seminars to thousands of women all across the country. I wanted to express to them that I really understand what they face in taking care of their families. Some years ago I wrote this humorous poem to highlight the numerous tasks moms face each and every day of their children’s growing-up years.
The Homemaker
On meeting someone new, they casually say
What do you do to pass the time of day?
I’m a homemaker, you brag, and their eyebrows do ruffle
They think that all day you dawdle and shuffle
But I’m here to say that they don’t know nothin’
About your life…all its trimmins and stuffin’
So let’s tell them a bit what you do each day
And see what they think and then what they say
I cook and I sweep, bandage hurts with much care
Wash dishes, scrub floors, chauffeur and comb hair
I pick up, sew up, cleanup and dust
And even create pies with a delicate crust
I change bare bottoms, then the oil in the car
Sing lullabies, play house, keep it all up to par
I balance seven eggs, and the checkbook, too
I can even play cards with the kids by the pool
Now that’s just at home, for I have two jobs
I manage, assign, and compute — I do gobs
Give talks, attend meetings, balance projects and all that
I’m really quite good, I wear several hats
With list between teeth I push the grocery cart
Dodging mothers and infants through the aisles do I dart
I come out of the store with fourteen bags
Manage to carry, unload, unpack with no snags
With pomp and fanfare I can perform any feat
Of planning and cooking for twenty to eat
The laundry, though mountainous, is done with skilled art
It’s washed, dried, folded, put away, only to start —
All over again, each week it’s the same
Clorox it, mend it, remove every stain
Then start on the ironing, watch piles start to tumble
Answer phones, run errands, with nary a mumble
So you see I’m a wizard, I can do quite a lot
If fact it gets done before 6 o’clock
Now that’s AM one day, in PM the next
And I work round the clock, and that is no jest
But I’m teaching my children and setting the tone
Of a warm, quiet spirit in my family and home
I’m raising my kids who’ll be strong and be true
But enough about me, now how about you?