Brief Summary Of David Sedaris 'Short Story Let It Snow'

Tina Schlander
Professor Warda
English 101
25 January 2015
THE STRUGGLE IS REAL I found myself dreaming of the day I would finally "have a life". I was a stay-at-home mom for eight years. During those eight years there were wonderful memories made with my son and husband, but towards the end the euphoria wore off and reality hit. In a short story written by David Sedaris called "Let it Snow", he shared a piece of his childhood to his readers. He was in the 5th grade living in Binghamton, New York with his two sisters, mom, and dad. His dad was always gone due to work and his mom 's moodiness. Snow fell for the first time in years which caused schools too close for five days. This disrupted his mom’s life and when she couldn 't handle
anymore she literally forced them out of the house and she locked the door behind them.
So he and his sisters played for a while and came back a few hours later to find that the door was still locked. They rang the doorbell and their mom never answered, so they looked through the window, saw her drinking wine, and watching television. To get their moms’ attention they yelled, knocked, and even threw snowballs at the window which she bluntly ignored. So they got mad. It was getting late and they wanted to teach both of their parents a lesson. They came up with a plan where one of them would lay in the middle of the road and get hit by a car. They figured it would make the parents feel bad for not showing them attention that they obviously needed. While his sister was laying in the middle of the road the neighbor drove up, saw her, and then told their mom. She finally came and got them. He clearly states that this was just how things were when he was growing up. I find that stay at home moms can face many
obstacles such as loneliness and depression which may lead them to neglect their children. One example that stay-at-home moms face is loneliness. Being a stay-at-home mom is extremely rewarding because you get to watch them go through all their milestones. As exciting and amazing and fulfilling as motherhood can be, it’s also one of the most isolating choices a woman can make. Whether you 're at home with a newborn, toddler, nine year old, or teenager a stay home mom really doesn 't have a social life. Their life consists of: cleaning the house, doing dishes, doing laundry, making meals, doing all the household shopping. They will stay busy making sure that everyone is happy and often don 't have time for themselves. Their husbands work and once they do get home they 're hungry, tired, and just want to relax before bed. These moms don 't usually have social lives because they don 't have time. They are by themselves with the children most of the day. They have no adult conversations and when they do they might not feel like they can intelligently contribute. They can find themselves feeling cut-off from their friends and disconnected from their husbands the one person who they thought would always understand them. Finally they are left feeling like they don’t even know themselves anymore. These moms love their children but the children aren’t capable of being their best friends. Depression is another example that stay-at-home moms go through. After some time has gone by stay-at-home moms may start asking themselves questions such as "Did I make the right decision?", "Do I really have to be stuck at home?", and “Maybe my family would have been better off if I worked”? All these thoughts are normal, but unless you control the negative thoughts they can lead to resentment. Resentment can lead to many things such as anger, mood swings, and feelings of being trapped. All these feelings can lead stay at home moms straight into depression. It also does not help that these moms need to have their partners show appreciation for all that they do for the family. I myself always hated when my husband would come home from work and not even say as much as a "thank you" for cleaning or even say "hey babe the house looks great". It would drive me crazy and I would end up blowing up at him and we would end up fighting. Stay at home moms get so caught up with daily routines that there days start blurring together and they can find themselves stuck in this depressive state of mind which affects your family and everyone else that is around you. Finally once the loneliness and depression sets in stay-at-home moms might find themselves neglecting their children, because these moms become a lot more stressed, more moody, and way less patient. Their tolerance levels decrease dramatically. What they can normally handle on a daily basis becomes a chore especially when you have no help. The tone in their voice when correcting their children will become sterner. Punishments will become a lot harsher. Sedaris stated in his short story "Our presence had disrupted the secret life she led while we were at school, and when she could no longer take it she threw us out. It wasn 't a gentle request, but something closer to an eviction" (71). This is a prime example showing how the mother was at her “whits end” and instead of talking nicely to her kids she yelled at them and threw them out of the house and locked the door. I also have a close friend named Katie who is also a stay-at-home mother of four children. I remember this time that I was over at her house and the kids were just playing and making some noise, but they weren’t extremely loud. She and I were just sitting there and next thing I know she was screaming at them for being too loud and told them to get in their rooms and not to come out till they knew how to be quiet. I asked her what was going on because it was not like her to scream at her children. She bawled. She didn’t quite understand what was going on she just said that her emotions have been all over the place and that she has just been very irritated with anything the kids do. I told her to get help and she did. Two weeks later she was diagnosed with depression. These moms won 't see that they are being neglectful to their children because they 're blinded by their depression.
I believe that being a stay-at-home mom has its rewarding side but from my experience it has a lot of downfalls. Being a stay-at-home definitely took its toll on me. Reality hit me when I realized that my husband and I were disconnecting and I wanted to be around my kid less and less. A lot of people would say I have it easy which wasn’t completely true. I completely understand Sedaris’s mom wanting her space away from the kids because it was most likely the only free time she had to herself. I do think she went about things a bit too harshly. Her children could have really gotten hurt and she wouldn’t have seen it coming because she was too caught up in wanting her space. We as parents all want our space at times but it shouldn’t come at the expense of our kids. I knew it was time for a change because it was not worth hurting my family. So I started college. I’m a lot happier now and I appreciate all the time I get with my husband and son. I have a better sense of worth now that I know I am doing my contribution into bettering our family.

Work Cited
Sedaris, David. “Let it Snow.” Writing A Guide for College and Beyond. 3rd ed. Lester Faigley. Boston: Pearson, 2012. Print.