Stay-at-Home-Flirt

I don't know about you, but when I was a fulltime worker back in the olden days, I worked in an  office full of mostly men. I was happily married (natch), but I enjoyed looking cute and acting cute and (I admit it) indulging in some innocent office flirtation. 

Now I'm a stay-at-home-mom who freelances from home. I rarely interact with men. When I'm out with the kids, men generally avoid any contact whatsoever. I've talked to my husband about this, and he says that when he sees a woman with kids, he tries to not even make eye contact because he wants to avoid even a hint of creepiness, of being too interested in either her or her kids. Makes sense I guess. The only other men I regularly see are my mom-friends' husbands. We might have conversations, joke around a little, but for some reason the relationship always seems slightly strained. Is it just me?

So I've been thinking about how the life of a SAHM means not getting much male attention, and what effect that can have on how sexy (or not) I feel. It really helps when I go out on my own (or with a girlfriend) with no kids. Suddenly, men check me out, make eye contact, open the door, even start a conversation with me. 

It's nice. It reminds me that I'm a woman, that I have some shred of desirability left to man-eyes. And I like to mention it to my husband, to make sure he knows I still got it. As Kimberly* pointed out to me, as Stay-at-Home-Flirts, we now have to get most of our sexy validation from our husbands alone. They'd better be up to the task. If we have to report back some mild flirting in order to hot things up at home, so be it.