Or feel like you might want to be doing something more but can’t talk about it because you’re “lucky” to have the option of not working or, as is the case for many of us these days, of working while we are home with the kids, a special brand of hell all its own. Powell’s essay put a name to that panicky, helpless feeling that sets in when you start to believe that you exist only to help others exist. “It’s like cabin fever after a few days, except it’s your life every day,” says Danielle Moeslein, 32, a stay-at-home mom in Missouri. But for some women, there exists a deeper sense of distress that can plague those whose daily routines revolve solely around the kids. parents who stay home full-time (and, let’s be honest, from everyone else too). Anyone willing to stand up and say that deserves a standing ovation from the one in five U.S. Not going to a traditional job every day in favor of full-time parenting is no walk in the park (as any mother or father who’s ever stayed home with the kids even for a day can imagine). The essay nailed the day-to-day reality for many SAHMs: balancing the vast task of raising children and running a household while simultaneously fending off comments about how it must be so nice and relaxing to not have to go to work.Īs a stay-at-home mom for 12 years and counting, I too felt a surge of vindication reading Powell’s essay. I first came across the term stay-at-home-mom depression in 2018 in an article on -written by Megan Powell, founder of The Momma’s Tired-that elicited a collective “ THIS” from women across the Web thanks to its frank take on an underdiscussed but very real mental health challenge. If we struggled before the pandemic, we are downright drowning now. And it’s not just me– available data (and maybe common sense?) tells us that parents of young kids at home without childcare are stressed and struggling without any form of emotional, mental, or physical support available to us. The point is, it’s no secret that the pandemic has been a special kind of hard for mothers, even those of us who are already familiar with staying at home.

All the kids are depressed id