Has anyone ever wondered what SAHMs go through ? Well, apart from the piles of dirty nappies and wipes after wipes after wipes...Why does any sensible, educated and enlightened by the stroke of feminism woman would choose to stay at home in the company with inarticulate, irrational, incontinent, incapable creatures? Some call it maternal instinct. Yes, there is some of that. But it does not stretch so far as to make life feel like bliss made in heaven. And when it does stop stretching, life becomes a dreary and stressful experience. How much can anyone endure hours of monotonous whinging, moaning closely followed by fits of tantrums, during which food lands on the ceiling and on a CD player. Well, no sane woman could endure that for long.Not for the 2,3,4,0r even 10 years that many women choose to stay at home with their offspring. So why do they do that? I have a theory about that, and it says that they choose full time mummying because the alternative is gruelling and gruesome. The alternative is to 'have it all': nice home and a nice career. Except that 'nice' is more often in theory than practice. Nice career often, in most cases of working women, amounts to spending 8 hours per day at the till, at the computer, at the phone, at the shelves, or at some other inanimate object with which we are asked engage to produce some not so nice money (not nice because it is never enough to comfortably cover full time child care expenses, bags of nappies, and basic essentials to keep the family alive such a case of chardonney per month). Add to that, the arsehole of a manager (what kind of recruitment system is in place in this country that it's always arseholes that get promoted?) and the choice becomes a no-brainer. Yeah, cots, snots and play blocks , give them to me any time, they just seem to be a doddle. Of, course, high flying career women have none of these concerns. But then they belong to a different breed, I guess one that should stop breeding. After all the 30 minutes of 'quality' time with their children can only ensure that their children remember what mummy looks and smells like. That's mad. But then women like it mad, in or out of the house..it's always mad. And sad.