The Crib: A Blog for New Parents
Parenting Is A Full Time Job.
Making the choice to be a stay at home parent is not always an easy one. For many people, it is not even an option. Two incomes are simply necessary for survival. Parents, who would love the chance to be at home with their children, have to have an outside job instead. In my case, offering childcare was a logical source of income, and it helped keep those bills paid, even if it never supported the life of luxury we had grown accustomed to…wanting.
It really used to bother me, when someone would ask me, “What do you do, what line of work are you in?” When I answered, “Oh, I stay home with the kids, and I do babysitting.” And people would look at me as if I were doing nothing. The next question would usually be, “Why don’t you just go out and get a real job?” Then they would clap my husband on the back, as if to tell him he was just practically a saint, for allowing me to lounge so lazily in the comfort of his hard work.
For many years, I was a stay at home mom, what I did was raise children, my own, those of others, and care for a home, and that was it. Nothing to it. Right. Parenting is actually comprised of elements of many different career fields. During any given day, I was a doctor, a nurse, a teacher, a housekeeper, chauffeur, cook, waitress, referee, financial advisor, plumber, repairperson, receptionist, etc., etc. And all of my jobs had to be accomplished with several small children trying to “help” me. My days were filled with a lot more than truffles and daytime television dramas. Well, ok, there was an awful lot of goldfish crackers and children’s television being consumed.
There were more than a few days, when I would have giddily turned my children over to anyone, and gone off to work, anywhere. Because being at home every single day, with the adorable bundles of joy that I had brought into the world, could occasionally bring me to tears. It was hard, it was stressful, and it was exhausting. It was also endearing and fun, it was enlightening, and it was important to us.
Full time, stay at home, parenting is not a prestigious career, the pay is pretty lousy, the hours are long, but the benefits are incredible.
