SAHM feelings....

I've been a SAHM for 4 years and 2 months and I am....BORED!!! yes, it has finally happened this year.
Up until now i have loved every minute of being home with my boys, and i truly appreciate that i am able to be a SAHM, but something has just clicked in me this year and i have started getting bored. maybe it is because they are a lot easier now, in that i don't have a newborn anymore that needs constant feeding and sleeping iykwim?
ds1 goes to kinder for 2 x 2 hour sessions a week but as you can imagine that time goes very quickly. i also have ds2 during this 'break' anyway so it does not feel like much of a break. Apart from this time, the childcare is all on me. dh works long hours 6 days a week.
i go to playgroup and swimming lessons to try to fill in some time. i also catch up with friends whenever i can. it just feels like ground hog day sometimes...and it is relentless with no weekends.
i don't know what the point of this post is...i guess i just needed to get it out. i don't want to sound ungrateful for what i have, but i guess i just need to express how I'm feeling and see if anyone else is/has gone through a similar period.
i find myself getting caught up with weird needs- i think it's just to give my brain something to focus on- like having another baby (which i honestly don't really want), or buying a new house or a new car or moving to another state. i don't think i actually want any of these things, i honestly just think it stems from boredom, from wanting to occupy myself.
thanks for letting me get it out.

my DD is only 10 months but ive been home for close to 2.5years now and i can honestly say im feeling the same.

yes we do swimming lessons on a monday and have mothers group on a tuesday but thats it, i feel like my life revolves around housework becasue well what else do u do to fill in ur time when ur home with a 10month old?!

i have no advice but :hug: ur not alone!

darl i found last year with DD in 3 yr old kinder boring...this year not so at all!! its much busier and im really enjoying it, working 2.5 hr a week helps too with more adult interaction, om worried what i'll do next year when DD1 is in school :(

It does get kind of boring.
What do you do for you? It sounds like the things you do are mainly for the benefit of your boys. Swimming lessons and playgroup are entertaining for children but no so entertaining for growns especially after the novelty has worn off.
Maybe it's time to look at something for you. A gym/tennis club/aquatic center with a creche or a short course might give you something to do.
I won't suggest an affair but I hear that they are great boredom busters :p

Once mine started school I felt less bored. I had time during the day to amuse myself and I go into school and do stuff there on occasion (I'm not hardcore enough to join the P&C)

you are not alone :hug:

is there anything you'd like to study? there's so much that you can do by correspondence ...

DH (who normally is a SAHD) is doing his arts degree by corro, two subjects at a time and is doing everything from literature to ancient history, theological studies and linguistics. he's loving it!

or if you're up for a shorter term challenge, google NaNoWriMo - you basically write a 50,000 word novella (or the first 50,000 words of a full novel) in November ... there's quite a few other mummas on BB who do it :)

just something which is *just for you* and which stimulates your lovely neurons, and which you can pick up and put down as needs be. but something totally indepenent of your mini men ...

thanks for all your replies :)
it does feel good just to talk about it.
crumpet- nice to know I'm not alone. i get so tired of doing housework, just to have it mucked up again. i think this contributes to the groundhog feeling.
olive- this year is sooo boring. I'm hoping things get better next year when he's in 4 yo kinder.
onyx- i do nothing for me. unless you count watching reality television? i don't have the energy for an affair. in fact, i think i would even find that boring! lol my dh is a total spunk anyway so i doubt id ever find anyone more attractive LOL
yeah maybe i need to look into a hobby....
peanutter- thank you for the suggestion :) but I've never been a great student LOL spent most of uni at the pub.

G, I am sure I have whinged about this many times - I really struggle with the whole SAHM thing. I don't want anyone else looking after my kids, but I find it difficult living the same day over and over again. It used to be far worse before W started kindy. At least now we have somewhere to be 4 days a week rather than just hanging around the house slowly going crazy.

I did do a some study for a while because I thought my brain might actually shrivel up into nothing but I have had to give it up because there is no time now with the baby in the mix. I hope to get back into it next year though because I am already feeling like I am nothing but a child minder and I need to have something that is for me.

I just want to say hang in there ladies! I know it seems like an eternity now but it will be behind you soon. Try to think about what it is you're craving, find some ways to build that into your life. Evening classes, book club, volunteering in the community, taking up some study - all things I've tried to keep the boredom at bay. Start a blog, try your hand at some little cottage business, create a self-improvement challenge, whatever. Only you know what would appeal and if you're feeling so blah you can't work it out, then it's all the more important that you start trying things until something clicks. :hug:

Yep, I'm bored out of my brains alot too. I have been a SAHM before, though it was only for 8mths with DD and 5mths with DS1 before going back to work and/or studying part time. This is the first time I have been home for longer than 8mths, we are coming up to a yr and a half now. And I am struggling to stop my brain going to mush TBH. Like you, I love that I can be home with the kids and concerntrate on family and things like that, I am very blessed, but so mentally unchallenged. I try to really enjoy the kids and what they do, but drawing my terrible renditions of Thomas the Tank and dancing around to the Fairies is starting to suck big time! I am hoping to get back into study next year (if I get into the course I want!). If I don't get in then it's going to be a long year! I just might need to find a job for a day or two just to break up the monotony!

Thanks for starting this thread! I'm a mixture of going off my nut out of boredom and going my nut out of frustration that I can't do any of the things that I want to do. Believe me, my mind brims over with ideas, just no time to do them.

My solution? Put both girls into childcare for two days a week next year. That means I can study for a Masters, buy/renovate an investment property and anything else I want to do.

Look, I think you absolutely have to give yourself some balance and be able to do what you want to do some of the time. It was a huge, huge decision for me to decide to put DD2 into childcare. She's much younger than I'm comfortable with. But I'm already going nuts, doing another year before I reach a comfortable age will just mean another year of frustration for me especially as my partner is a shiftworker so I usually do the whole getting up/breakfast/dressed plus the dinner/bath/bed thing on my own. I don't get weekends either as he often works those.

I also hear you on the housework. To me, it feels like a looming spectre that hangs over my head every day. I actually like housework but it's incredibly frustrating doing it with DDs plus DP here. So I've basically told DP that he has to give me 3 hours in a solid block every week to get it done. I don't want to be doing it in dribs and drabs every day. Too frustrating. So either a solid block or I'm getting a cleaner. End of.

im not bored ............yet but my 3.5yrs have been non stop
but prior to having my 3rd i did admit to DH that if i only had DS1 i would be bored stupid by now as his so indepentend

i LOVE being home full time and would never change it but i am looking forward to go back to work/school once DS2 is at school

Oh hun i am right there with you, bored and frustrated.
DD1 is pushing sooo many boundaries and i can't wait for her to go back to work, i find myself trying to think of new craft activities for them (for me really) and the housework and everything gets so tedious and annoying... there are days i would prefer to deal with screaming angry customers than be at home doing the same old same old.
Will add more later but for now the ferals are fighting over a toy ;)

I think this is all totally normal. I have found that when they start school
Life gets hectic again and I have always been happy that I haven't rushed back to work before this stage. I really think finding something for you would help. Gym and sewing are my activities which keep me saner. Lol. We all get bored at times, why do u think I have four kids. Life was just too easy with 2 or 3 kids lol!