Thursday, March 6, 2008

It's Not Luck, It's a Choice

I hear your pain, girls. It's very maddening when someone finds out you're a stay-at-home mom, then says, "You're lucky, I wish I could stay home with my kids." Do you want to scream?

Where does luck come into this? I didn't just wake-up one day with the lucky-card that said, "You May Stay Home Now, Pass GO and Collect $200." No, staying home, or otherwise known as "not leaving the kids & home for 40 or more hours a week" was a decision.

Now, maybe you could say that our family (my husband's) income was somewhat a luck-of-the-draw since his chosen career turned out to be unreliable and frustrating in terms of pay and advancement. So, we had to make do with the hand we were given.

Oh, there were times during the past 26 years that I wished I was one of those moms who could quietly slip out of the house to go to work; do something interesting and important, get paid for my efforts, know that someone else was caring for the kids (feeding, educating, and referring), then go home to appreciate their sweet faces for a few hours before they went to bed.

Okay, there were years when that sounded good.

Thank goodness I'm a stubborn person. We decided when Sara was a baby that I/we would raise our children, ourselves, and that was that.

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cheryle

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