Why women say, "No more!"

I could hardly wait for my husband to get home. The baby never stopped crying, no matter what I tried. I finally resorted to carrying her around all day in a Snugli. She was no better at night. Sometimes I fell asleep right next to her crib and woke up with her still crying. She wanted me to walk with her all night. Would this never stop?

I don't know how I made it through those first three months. I was thankful they were over and she was finally sleeping for longer stretches of time. It would be awhile till she slept straight through the night.

Later on, when she and her sisters were older, I remember breathing a sigh of relief when they were finally in bed. Now my evening could begin!

But as they got older they stayed up later until eventually I went to bed before them! The evening hours never seemed to end. If I had worked full-time during the day in those years I don't know when I would have found time for me.

And I needed that time. When I didn't have it I would become short-tempered and resentful of all the pressures of child-raising and keeping the family afloat.

So I joined forces with the millions of women underground who say, "Enough!" This might mean enough children, enough cooking, laundry, housework, shopping, chauffering, cleaning, etc. Whoever reaches that point knows what is enough. The problem is that we usually wait too long to say it, even to ourselves. We wait for someone else to say, "Enough" and thereby rescue us.

That doesn't happen. Why should anyone else take on this burden? Is he a fool?

Furthermore, we become so hard-of-hearing our own voice that it becomes submerged under layers of suppression and emerges distorted, diffused into emotional rage, medical problems or psychological disorders.

Finally, if we still don't learn how to take care of ourselves within the marriage and family, we might become so desperate that all we can think of is LEAVE!

And so many women have abandoned their homes, their families, their children.

It's time to stop and listen to one's heart, while it still sustains the life of the family.

If we learn how to say, "No," we won't have to scream, Enough is enough! as we walk out the door.