In the South, we see a wave of divorces in our early twenties, the result of the rampant high school sweetheart marriages, before they die down for the next ten years or so. Currently in that lull, I have many friends, family members, and acquaintances who stay at home with young children. While some ::insert disclaimer here:: balance this well, I've noticed among others, that it's really not for the best.

 

It seems every other day a cousin or high school pal is detailing some new drama, via social media, involving everyone from parents in the car pickup line to their own extended family and I've noticed lately that they all seem to have one thing in common: they're stay-at-home moms.

 

One cousin can't seem to have a conversation with our grandmother without picking a fight and another friend from high school seems to constantly be feuding with other military wives and I can't help but wonder if perhaps they're just too comfortable living at home in their own echo chamber, where everyone just agrees and shares the same ideas. Their husbands come home after a long day at work and simply can't bear to fight with them, so they tread lightly and hope to get laid later. Their kiddos may not listen to them during the day, but with dad home they're just as eager to keep the peace and deep down know that mom can take away the iPad/XBOX. With no coworkers or team members who don't rely on them for sex or food, they have no one to hold them accountable and they just become... spoiled, for lack of a better word.

 

These women pick fights with everyone in their path, knowing no one will call them out, because the rest of society is used to avoiding conflict and eventually end up so impossibly unpleasant that their husbands can't take it anymore and end up on TRP. I see it every day at work, in a library full of SAHM's, some of which, I cannot stress enough, *are delightful," but many who simply cannot fathom that they're not the center of the universe (and neither are their screaming children, #librarianproblems).

 

What do you think? Do you see this in any of your peers? Do you stay at home yourself and find that you have to remind yourself to connect with the world outside your family? Do you think this was different, either for the better or worse, when staying home was the norm and its own social dynamic? Is social media to blame for fueling the fire or is this norm just becoming more public now?