Sunday, September 13, 2009

The Most Important Job on Earth

You hear it all the time..."Mothers have the most important job on Earth". Hmmmmm....you would never know it. I am lucky enough to be one of those women that have been on both ends of the spectrum. While raising my son, I worked out of the home for 11 years. As of this moment, I have been a stay at home mom for almost the same amount of time.

They...whoever "they" are, say you can never appreciate the dark unless you have seen the light or vice versa. I have experienced both sides. The working mom and the dutiful stay at home mom topped off with some extra duties called homeschooling.

In comparison, most of the time I find my stay at home "job" unrelentless work. I learned a long time ago there is no such thing as a "break" being a SAHM. Well, that is unless you want to dump your kids off for the public school system to take care of every day. Growing up I always wondered what my mom did while my brother and I were at school. The house was always a wreck when we got home....I guess she ate bom boms and watched Oprah all day. :-)

My daughter bucks and procrastinates as much as I will tolerate in her school work and acts as though I am torturing her, while most of the time hubby acts as though I am the maid, babysitter, and prostitute all rolled into one that God has sent down personally just for him. Lucky man.

I have often wondered how women with more than one child do it. Even though I do the best I can being a stay at home mom I know that I am not cut out for it.

As with all darkness there is a light - it is great not to have a boss..I am the boss. I CAN take a couple of days off without the fear of getting fired...after all who would want my job? I can come and go as I please and I don't ever have to worry about missing my kid because she is always with me. I guess these things are what make it all worth it in the end.

Yes, I am a stay at home homeschooling mom. The pay sucks, I get no recognition and no one even cares to ask me "What did you do today" because everyone knows what we did. Nothing notable at all. No interesting stories. Get up, prepare meals, lesson plans, school work, chores, etc. Now how interesting can that be???

The best I can hope for is that my daughter will grow up and give as much love and care to her family as I have tried to give to mine. That will be the payoff....

2 comments:

  1. You have a thankless job, for sure. I was a SAHM, but I also attended college while they were at school, so I had something for ME. But it isn't easy, that's for sure! I found it depressing at times. Even though I'm at home now, I don't have to keep cleaning up after people all day. That part was a relief when they headed off to college. My husband, I can handle. :-)

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  2. Beautiful Post, Laura! I love the maid etc, etc comment. I've thought the same thing several times. ;-P

    Miss you guys!

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