On Being A Stay At Home Mom

16 Comments
It’s funny that today’s Blogtober topic relates to what I was planning on blogging about anyway..
For almost as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to be a stay at home mom. As a kid, my mom always worked and I always hated it. I never got to be the cool kid whose mom went on the field trips as a chaperone. And really, because of her schedule, there weren’t many functions that she was able to attend outside of school either. Work started early in the mornings, way before I was awake, which also meant an early bedtime for her.
The one experience that has stuck with me for close to 20 years was the time that my third grade class put on a little tea party event for Mother’s Day. Our class got to serve lunch to our mothers and then everyone did little performances along the lines of reciting poems and telling jokes. I was in two dance performances. I was also the only child whose mom (or some sort of mother figure) didn’t attend. To this day, it still makes me want to cry.
There are days where I hate being a stay at home mom. It’s rough to be around the same grumpy little people around the clock, day in and day out. I get frustrated easily and sometimes even annoyed that I’m not doing more with my life. After all, I didn’t spend four and a half years in college to wipe asses and make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. There was a point where I wanted to be some big marketing superstar stomping around in $600 shoes in a highrise office building in Miami.

Yet, I have no regrets. I get to spend all day snuggling my tiniest munchkin. I’m the one who gets to hear the excited “mommy!” when I pick up the girls from daycare. I get to run to the front window and hold the blinds open as a fire truck zooms by the house. And soon, I’ll be the one at PTA meetings, doing bake sales, and chaperoning field trips. Yeah, having a second income would be great, but for now, we’re doing just fine making memories.

16 Comments

  3. Aw! Your kids are so lucky 🙂 I have the same reason for wanting to be a stay at home mom when the time comes. My mom worked a lot too… it was always my dad that was ale to make my school events, and I LOVED that (and we were a lot closer), but I know this lifestyle won’t accommodate for that, so I hope I’m able to stay home when that time comes. 🙂

  5. I can totally relate! I didn’t always want to be a stay at home mom, I thought I would try it out. I really loved my job. But I was practically raised by nannies since both my parents worked so much and I knew I didn’t want that for my kids.

  7. I absolutely love this! I’d rather make memories than make a paycheck, too! Granted, I’ll most likely be going back to work once the kids are in school full time … but for now, I’m enjoying my job of Mom!

  8. I feel the same. My mom never made it to anything because she simply couldn’t miss work. It’s why I’m so involved with the girls!

  9. I have such mixed feelings about this! I’ve never wanted to be a stay at home mom but I know I will have to be for awhile because it wouldn’t pay for me to work my current job because my checks would barely cover day care here in CA. I just feel like my four years of college is going to waste too. It’s such a tough choice for me!

  10. Love this! I’ve always planned to be a working mom, but I also know the feeling of not having your mom there for those school functions. I’m really hoping my career choice is as flexible as I think it is and allows me to do attend functions and such. I know a lot of the librarians I’ve worked with would take half-days to go or they got to be the cool mom that works at the library during the school visit haha

  12. I remember very clearly this one day two weeks in being a stay at home mum where I stood completely still in my kitchen after putting my daughter down for a nap, and thinking ‘this is it’. I had so many ideas of what it was going to be like to be a stay at home mum thinking I would have all the time in the world to bake banana bread, learn to sew & go out for coffee with my friends all the time. But it is so much harder, and more rewarding than I ever thought it would be. And I know I will be working at some point, so for now each day I try and enjoy it from the minute it begins, because one day my little girl will be at school 🙁 I love your honesty in this post, and maybe you were given that experience at school for Mothers Day by the universe so that would be there for your kids.

    Lauren / And Together We

  13. I am trying so hard to be the working mom who still makes it to these events and is still present. My mom went back to school when I was in junior high, and I remember having her at band concerts with her homework studying. I mean, at least she made it to every concert and every piano recital, but still, she always seemed distracted. I don’t want to be that for my kids (though blogging certainly doesn’t help me avoid distraction). Some day I hope to stay home again (I got to for 1 1/2 years during flight school)… but until then… I’ll do what all us moms do (whether we work outside the home or work inside the home) – just keep chugging along.

  14. This SAHM thing can be so conflicting! I am so appreciative that I have the opportunity to stay at home since I know there are plenty of moms who want to but can’t, but I also sometimes wish I worked a “real” job and earned a paycheck. Like you, I look forward to being able to attend my kids’ school and extracurricular events and don’t think I’ll ever regret staying home — and someday I’ll be working for $$ again!

  15. you lost me at “stay at home mom” when you said you put your two kids in daycare. Kind of disproves the point of staying at home, don’t you think?

  16. I have three kids, one which I stay at home full time with one. The two that are in daycare only go twice a week to have some sort of social iteration. So no, I don’t think it disproves the point of staying at home..

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