I sit here listening to the kids outside my window giggling and yelling while waiting for the school bus. How did that happen? Where did summer go.
It’s been a blur of work and weddings and running around trying to manage twenty something employees. Rewarding in so many ways. Yet so exhausting. I feel pride in my work in a way i never have.
But the consequence has been a summer that never was. The lazy days at the lake happened without me. That makes me a little sad, but i realize now, more than ever, that i am not built to be a stay at home mom. I’m better in every way when i get some fulfillment from employment. I wish i could get that from parenting alone, but society just doesn’t work that way.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I don’t know if anyone is built to be a stay at home mom. I can’t think of anyone I know where stay at home mom does not equal mental illness. Seriously.
I kind of agree with that. You have to be a certain kind of person to stay at home full-time, and most people aren’t. There needs to be a balance in life, and staying home all the time throws that balance way off, the same way working all the time does. Balance equals good. Glad you are finding some balance in your life. :)
lol
Token unbalanced happy to be a SAHM, here!
I find great fulfillment in being a SAHM. BUT. That’s not all that I am. I work from home (art, sewing, &c). I work AT home (home maintenance, keeping the yard & house reasonably decent). The thought of needing to work away from home makes me anxious. Not because I fear being around people, or having to get up and be ready by a certain hour. But because this is where I am happy.
Once the kids are in school full time, I still hope that my career will allow me to stay, work, be at home. Not because I have to be or my husband thinks I SHOULD be (heaven forbid, if anyone told me that this is where I belong, I’d give them a piece of my mind). I’m no 50′s housewife. I genuinely WANT to be here.
My partner is gone A LOT in from late spring to late fall (biologist widow, I am) and it would be extra difficult to manage everything if I worked outside the home, too, it would mean a lot of child-care, which is very hard to find and expensive here. I could/would make it work if we required it, but it works well for us this way. I am fiercely independent and we all know it. I miss the hell out of him when he’s gone, but I do also enjoy and take pride in being able to handle everything on my own.
Do I think it works for everyone? Hell, no. I’ve seen women go bonkers being ‘cooped up’. BUT it works for me & my family. :)