Motherhood - the pay stinks but the benefits are amazing!

Two of my sisters and I took our kids to Ikea the other day. This is one of our favorite stores and thank goodness, it's very kid friendly (between the three of us, we had 8 kids with us).

We descended upon the store and began our adventure of winding through the aisles, directing the kids through different sections of the store, pulling them off the beds (the mattresses are definitely durable and quite bouncy, I might add) and catching them as they tested how far they could go in the swinging chairs without falling out (I'm sorry, but even I would love a swinging chair in my bedroom).

Needless to say, though, shopping with eight kids is tiring. It was getting near dinner time and we new the little tykes were getting hungry. And then my sister remembered hearing that kids under twelve ate FREE at Ikea.

The three of us giggled as we herded the kids toward the cafeteria. Why not ask, we figured. We arrived to find literally no one else in line. We had the place to ourselves. Laughing skeptically, we approached the lady at the cash register.

"Hi," I said, "Is it true that kids under twelve eat free?"

"It's true," she answered.

"Is that with a paying adult?"

"No. The kids eat free."

"Really?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Free?"

The girl nodded, apparently amused with my obvious shock and disbelief.

It felt like Christmas.

I turned to my sisters, trying to hold back my excitement and laughter and said, "It's free."

They did their best to contain their own laughter as they scanned the faces of eight, eager and hungry children, under the age of twelve.

"Okay," I said with a shrug, "grab a tray."

Knocking over a few of the smaller ones, the big kids raced to the counter and formed a line. With pure joy, my sisters and I watched as our stair-step brood of offspring made their choices and received their meals, all FREE. If you haven't had the meatballs with Lingonberry jam at Ikea, you are missing out.

Needless to say, it was the best shopping outing ever and the kids are dying to go back as soon as possible.

So, next time you're having a crazy day and you need to fun outing, go shopping at Ikea. Take your kids, hey, take the neighbor's kids. I don't know how long the deal lasts, but it's definitely worth the trip.



FYI: A CNN report stated that a study was done on the work a mother puts in each day and how much she would make if she actually got paid. The firm conducting the study concluded that "the typical mother puts in a 92-hour work week and works at least 10 jobs. In order of hours spent on them per week, these are: housekeeper, day-care center teacher, cook, computer operator, laundry machine operator, janitor, facilities manager, van driver, chief executive officer and psychologist. By figuring out the median salaries for each position, and calculating the average number of hours worked at each, the firm came up with $138,095 -- three percent higher than last year's results.

Even mothers who work full-time jobs outside the home put in $85,939 worth of work as mothers, according to Salary.com."