The Original Post for Wednesday

I am a stay at home mom (SAHM). I enjoy it most days. I don't enjoy however people who tell me that I need to get a job or that my son would benefit from being in a day care. How does my decision to be a stay at home mom affect anyone outside myself, my husband, and our son? It doesn't so why must people have such a negative mindset about this? Before I really get into this I will say, even if I did want to work there are very few jobs in our area as it is. If I were to take one of the few available jobs, by the time taxes were taken out, we paid for childcare, we purchased a second car (yep, we're a one car family and it's really not that big of a deal to me) and made that payment plus gas and insurance, we'd have about $5. It's not worth it to me to work for an extra $5. It just honestly doesn't make sense to me in the long run to do that. So unless you're willing to help financially contribute to B's childcare expenses, get us a second car or whatever, just keep it to yourself.

Now I do know that some people think that SAHMs do nothing but watch cartoons with their kids all day and nap and ok well some days that does happen (usually after the fourth or fifth consecutive day of rain), but let me tell you it's so much more than that. There's somehow a never ending pile of laundry that I get done, dishes, cooking (I do like that I am able to actually cook a lot of our meals from scratch and then have a family dinner at the table in the evenings), cleaning my house (and re-cleaning as B is often a force of two year old full on boy energy that rivals big tornadoes), and even though he's two we already are working with B on pre-school stuff. So please tell me again how I slack off and do nothing? I absolutely value this time because I know that at some point, I'm going to have to work again and I'm fine with that. As far as B getting "proper socialization" trust me, the kid gets plenty between MOPS, playdates with other SAHM's kids, etc.

I'm not bashing moms that work, I know plenty and they're awesome moms who absolutely value the time they do have with their kids. I'm just kind of over this whole thought process that SAHMs are slackers and need to be out there in the workforce (and again, there has to be jobs). Sometimes though that makes me giggle because growing up, until my brother & I were both in elementary school our mom stayed at home. In fact, a lot of my friends in elementary school and sometimes beyond, their moms stayed at home. I often wonder if the women who think that SAHMs are a detriment to whatever ridiculous female empowerment movement they believe in, if they had a stay at home mom and I'm willing to bet that a lot of them did. But you know, it's all about the money and keeping up with the Joneses and female whatever.

At the end of the day though I just wonder, will this aspect of the so-called mommy wars end?