I know that not everyone can be privileged to be a stay at home mom. (Although I think many could if they would sit down and look at the finances and check out their priorities...but I digress) My purpose is only to express my feelings on this issue and nothing more. It is my opinion and mine alone. Do with it what you will.  That said let us move on.

When my son was a baby I worked and went to school. I was forced to work by the circumstances we were in at the time. He being my first born you know I loved spending every moment with him. It killed me when I had to leave him in daycare and I could hear him crying for me as I walked to my car also crying my eyes out. I was lucky enough to be leaving him with his grandparents but still I was his mommy and I wanted to be with him.

Then when my daughter came along I only worked seasonally doing taxes. So I only had to work 3 and a half months. And I was able to work my schedule around my hubby’s schedule so that the children were almost always left with a parent. But still I missed them. Finally we moved to NC. I decided when my baby girl came along that I was done. I missed them when I was away from them and I called them all the time. We made the decision that I would stay home all of the time. The funny thing is that my husband was making less money then. But we made it a priority for me to always be home with them and the Lord has always provided for us.

Let me tell you. I was not raised to be a housewife. My mom always had to work. I was not prepared to be a housewife. I never even took home economics. Not only had I taken on the mantle of stay at home mom but we had also decided to homeschool about the same time. So I was learning to balance being a stay at home mom and teacher at the same time. My husband, who was raised by a stay at home mom, was not always patient with me. He thought I didn’t do enough all day(he had no clue) and he forgot his mother had thirty years of perfecting her craft and he had forgotten the part of when he was young.  We had also just moved to NC away from all of our family so I really had no mentors either. It was a struggle to say the least.

But I have persisted. Am I good at it. No but I am getting better. June Cleaver I am not! I have not one organizational bone in my body. I am very far behind in my learning having not even taken home ec.  I just do what I have always done when I want to learn something new… research.  I pick up every tip I can. I read every book I can get my hands on. I take notes and highlight paragraphs. (I have to thank my dad for most of these skills. God may have placed the raw material but dad helped me develop this skill) . Then of course I pray. I read my bible for comfort and encouragement. I pray. I watch How Clean is Your House and take notes. And I PRAY!!!! “Lord just help me survive this day” lol  I have learned allot. Like how to clean your house when you turn on your sink and then get distracted and forget you turned on your faucet until you have completely flooded your kitchen. True story. To never never put even the smallest amount of regular dish liquid in the dishwasher. That a child no matter how small can make a ladder out of your drawers and climb up onto the counter and pour out an entire canister of flour but not know that you can tell it was them by the flour footprints on your Navy blue tile floor that lead all the way to the door.

I would like to meet the first feminist that said staying at home and being a mom and wife is not challenging, wastes your brainpower ,and takes no talent. Then after I punch her in the nose as hard as I can for devaluing my job I will walk out the door with my list of to dos in her hand and tell her I expect them all done by dinner. See how much talent she needs.

You see there tends to be allot more to being housewife than cleaning and cooking, and allot more to raising children then giving them a bath and reading them a story at bed time. It is being there when they get into trouble and helping them to know what they did wrong and guiding them. Learning experiences and wonderful childhood moments don't happen after 5 pm. They happen all day. I want to be there to see as many as I can.