the stay at home mom {sahm} vs. working mom debate is one that you come across constantly as soon as you get pregnant. every parenting website, blog, or forum is full of gung ho working moms calling sahms lazy and sahms trying to make working moms feel guilty for not staying home with their kids. i find my self wondering... who cares? men {for the most part} don't sit around arguing about which of their jobs is more taxing or more rewarding. they respect each other's individual career choices.
even women.
a woman who works as a nurse would never tell a woman who works as a teacher that her job isn't good enough, she should quit being lazy and find a better way to help her husband out. why is that? why is it that because my career looks different then yours, isn't paid in the same currency than yours, it doesn't count?
society tries to tell you that you need something outside the home to be fulfilled, but what if i'm perfectly content with my full time job as homemaker and mother of my child? i don't desire an outlet to escape from my rolls as mother and wife. i love those rolls. those rolls give me purpose. i am proud of the career choice i made and i am sick and tired of people trying to convince me that i "deserve more" or "need something outside of the house". being a stay at home mom is all i have ever wanted to be and there is nothing wrong with that. just like there is nothing wrong with a mother who wants to work outside the home.
and to those who say we're just lucky we make enough money to live on one income. we are very thankful to have all the many blessings we have, but our decision to live on one income was exactly that- a decision. Beau doesn't make a lot of money {he's a police recruit for God's sake} but we made the decision that having me at home with our children was worth more to us than having a big house, or a fancy new car we have to make payments on, or going out to eat at nice restaurants or giving our children all the coolest toys, or even cable or internet. we set our priorities and having a parent at home with the children was number one for us. that doesn't make our priorities any better than yours or any worse. they are just different.
so there you go- that's my little spiel!
i hope i didn't offend or anger anyone because that absolutely was not the purpose of this post!
aww that is truly such a sweet picture!!
ReplyDeleteI really loved reading this post! You sound like a fabulous mama. I am also a stay at home mum and although I am a trained teacher I have chosen to stay at home with my baby girl because I could not imagine missing out on her growing up. I can't bear to imagine someone else looking after my baby and experiencing all of those precious moments I should be experiencing with her! I know some woman can justify it but I just can't.
ReplyDeleteOh and your little man is just gorgeous!!
Following ya.
Between the lines
Preach on, sister. A family member could not fathom that I walked away from a six figure career to "do nothing but change diapers". She actually said "So because you make so much less than your husband it's easy to give up that income." I politely corrected her and said, yes, it is a choice we willingly made. I am fortunate to be able to keep my hands in my work on a very (VERY) part time basis so that I can do things like sock money away for college and help to pay down the mortgage. Kudos to you for knowing where your priorities lie. Don't let anyone try to minimalize that. Ever.
ReplyDeleteSo true! I'm a mostly sham. (I do work maybe once/week) Anyhow, it is a sacrifice and decision like you said. We also decided ot live off one income- not always easy, but a choice we made. Anyhow, do you listen to the Bert Show? I've been thinking about this because of a caller they had call in sometime last week where a man claimed a woman couldn't be a good mom AND work outside of the home. It was a bit infuriating. Anyhow, visiting from the bigs/littles blog hop GA style :)
ReplyDeleteJen
www.goteambowen.blogspot.com