Why did I become a stay at home mom? I LOVED working, and having a sense of value at a workplace, getting out of the house and working my butt off for little pay. I truly did. I met amazing people at work before becoming a mom.
I worked one year, of your life. I worked in a school kitchen as a kitchen manager. I was also still breastfeeding you and pumping milk around the clock. I would work from the hours of 6am-2pm. They were AMAZING hours! Until you become a mom and you have to wake your 4 month old baby up at 5:15 am, to be able to leave the house at 5:30 to be to work on time. To then pickup my sweet baby around 2:30 get home around 3-4:20ish depending if I had a few errands to run to have to put you to bed at 5pm. I only got a SOLID 2 hours with you, my heart was crushing. I got to hear about all of the new things you were doing from your babysitter. I feared there wasn’t enough consoling for you, because I was the mother even though I know she was the best I could have chose for you. I didn’t get to help you eat breakfast, or lunch, or even put you down for a nap. My heart was always so shattered at drop off.
But this is what we are supposed to do right? Get a degree, get married and become a working mom. Society leads us to believe this is the ladder to success for your family. Your dad and I felt different. I wanted to raise you, I wanted to feed you and I didn’t want to put you to bed at 5 pm so that you got your recommended 12 hours of sleep. It wasn’t working for our family. So we made changes to make it happen for me to stay home.
In my opinion, now that I have done both positions As a working mom, and a stay at home mom, I have some insight. I 100% feel it’s harder to be a working mom on the heart. It’s achey, sad, and full of guilt. You have to call in sick because your baby is sick, for the 2nd day in a row, then your boss is asking about backup sitters. When in reality, I was the mom wasn’t it’s okay for me to stay home with MY baby and care for his needs? Jobs don’t care about your personal life, but it’s a must to care about your work life. It’s an unfortunate way of life that we live.
But it’s also hard to be a stay at home mom, you now have to responsibility of being a mom, wife and housekeeper all day everyday and there is no clocking in and clocking out. It’s hard sometimes. If I’m sick I’ve still gotta rise to the prize, you still need fed. The house is always a mess no matter how many hours I spend cleaning after you go to bed. Grocery shopping got harder. But I would 100% still choose this life than a working mom. I am so fortunate your dad gave us this opportunity to let me raise you while he’s at work and put you on our schedule. I love my life so much more.
The hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life wasn’t my 13 mile half marathon, math class in college or birth. It’s being a stay at home mom. It’s also the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done for myself. We go on morning walks, we stay on routine. We read all of the books, go to the library and I get to watch you grow!! When your dad comes home from work I am always telling him the newest word you said today, or the funniest thing you did. You bring SO much joy into my life. I wouldn’t imagine my life any other way than the way it is today.
Love, mom
Life, children and marriage 