Appreciating a Stay-At-Home Mom
“Young fool. Only now, at the end, do you understand.”
– Palaptine, Sith Emperor
After 10 months of living the luxurious existence of having my wife as a stay-at-home mom, my wife finally returned to work yesterday – accepting a great job with some good friends of hers.
I thought that, after all this time of constant introspection about parenting, that I would have a proper appreciation of all of the million things that my wife has been doing to keep the house going while I worked. Those times she straightened up the living room during the day, made some food I could re-use for the next day’s lunch, where she did the laundry, folded the diapers, prepared the clothes for the kids, gave the baby a haircut, etc, I now find some additional appreciation for.
Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that, after my wife went to bed early – having to get up at 5:30am to catch an early train into the city, and I find myself here at 2:30am – authoring this blog post while I wait for the next load of diapers to come out of the wash.
For our family, having my wife home as a stay-at-home mom was not a “luxury” but was the right thing to do, what with our young daughter being in a limbo between her former daycare and her now-started preschool (which is awesome by the way), and with my newborn son. It was the right way to play our cards. But now, after having gotten used to the many husband-perks of having a wife able to do so many things around the house during the day, I do indeed now appreciate so much more the work that she was doing.
L. Ron Hubbard‘s precept in The Way to Happiness of “Honor and Help Your Parents” was primarily authored to make sure children respect the work their parents did in raising them.
Well, I would like to submit that we as husbands should also make sure to honor, help, and respect the work our wives do in making the world go round. Because it’s a lot. Trust me.
And, I figured I might as well close with a pair of tidbits of from the interwebs regarding SAHM awesomeness:
First, courtesy of MSNBC and TheLaughingStork, 10 things to never say to a stay-at-home mommy:
1. When the kids are older, do you think you’ll get a real job?
2. How June Cleaver of you!
3. Oh, so you don’t work?
4. Since you have extra time on your hands, could you whip up a few dozen brownies for the bake sale tomorrow?
5. All day with your kids? I can’t even imagine.
6. I’m jealous. I wish my husband were rich so I wouldn’t have to work either.
7. What do you do all day, anyway?
8. I’m sure you’re not the only one who’s ever wasted money on a college degree.
9. That explains why your son is so clingy!
10. Weird. I assumed your house would be superclean.
Folks have said 7 out of 10 of those to my wife on more than one occasion, which is why we relate to this list. 🙂
And lastly, this amazing infographic on what a stay-at-home mommy’s work is actually worth:
Via: DegreeSearch.org
So true, so true! A very nice acknowledgement for your wife, and all mommies out there!
Thanks to you! Being a SAHM is the best job I have ever had!
Sooooo true!!! Gonna show my hubby later;)
My favs are #6 (hiring a nanny is practically my income after taxes) & #10 (Now the question is how to get the house to STAY cleaned) Have admit I had a misconception about being a stay at home mom before I experienced it. Although, I have to appreciate my hubby who brings home the bacon AND finds time to clean the house when I leave him with the kidos. 🙂
So true!!! SAHM are so under appreciated. Tough but one of the best jobs. Wish I could do it. And it’s awesome you cloth diaper!
This is an interesting article. Very different point of view. Maybe I will think about implementing it in my family 🙂