The Diary of a Stay-At-Home Mom: Savage Encounters

By Marilyn Black

Faced with impossible childcare fees, a mother is forced to leave the job she loves to become a stay-at-home mom to a three-year-old son and one-year-old babies. Feeling much like a missionary, leaving all she knows behind to embark on a journey to a foreign land, she documents periodic frustrations in an attempt to find humor in the situations she finds herself in. Referring to her children as natives or savages and her husband as the adult local, she recounts her travels in this unfamiliar and baffling territory.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jun 10, 2021
• ISBN: 9781664178946

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Copyright © 2021 by Marilyn Black.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 08/18/2022

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Contents

Acknowledgements

I Vow

Disclaimer and Warning

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 4 and 5 Days

Week 5

Week 6

Week 7

Week 7 and 5 Days

Week 8

Week 9

Week 10

Week 11

Week 12

These Old Shoes

Week 14

Week 15

Thoughtful Excerpt

Week . . . 16 or Whatever

Week 17

Week 18

Week 19

Week 21

Week 22

Why Can’t I Be Normal Like the Others?

Night After Christmas

Week 24

Week 26

Week 27

Week 28

Motherhood

Week 29

Week 30

Week 30 and . . . a Half

Week 32

Week 34

Week 37 AKA Forever

Week 39

Week . . . I Have No Bloody Idea (42)

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Afterword

Acknowledgements

This book would never have been published without the encouragement and support from my friends and family.

Alexzander, thank you for pushing me to publish my own work as I tried to convince you to publish yours. YOU’RE NEXT! Get crackin’, kid!

Mom and Dad, thank you for always being so supportive of my writing. Although, I still think mom is biased!

Michael, my love, thank you for supporting me as I pursued publication! You’ve had my heart from day one and kept me sane during the chaos.

My sweet children. You’ve made me laugh, you’ve made me cry, and my heart couldn’t possibly fit more love in it for you. I hope you always feel that love, I hope you always feel seen, and I hope you all live happy and healthy lives (that is, if you don’t die of embarrassment when you are old enough to actually understand this book is entirely about YOU!)

Jessica, my bestie! Thank you for being my friend when I felt all was lost.

My Lovey, thank you for being a shining light in the darkness...I will never forget you, Tracey.

There are so many more people that I could probably fill a whole other book with them! Even random strangers on the game World of Warcraft, people I had never met in person, and those who would indulge me in haiku battles, role-playing, or improv poetry!

My dear readers, never forget: The only one setting limits is yourself, and you’ll never know if you can if you don’t try.

Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to

climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.

—Unknown

Being Positive doesn’t mean you walk around with rose-

colored glasses. It means you overcome the thorns.

—John Gordon and Daniel Decker

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as

working for the Lord, not for human masters.

—Colossians 3:23

What I thought was beyond impossible . . . actually came

true . . . I know, with all my heart, it can be the same for you.

—Christine Canales

I Vow

Darling kids of mine; I see society today and I wonder. I wonder where the old fashioned values went, where sharing was common and kindness expected. Where whiners were hushed and strength was admired. I wonder what happened. So, today I make this vow:

I vow to always correct you when you are wrong.

I vow to love you no matter what.

I vow to make you say Please and Thank You.

I vow to make you wait your turn,