WAHMe
Whata?
Work at Home Mom. Me.
Oh (*yawn*). Why?
Kid + work <bad babysitter / abusive environment> {strange new behaviours by kid}
= choosing to quit job to stay home with kid (+ 2 more + 56 daycare / afterschool / preschool kids + creating / running 3 businesses) over the last 11 years
Oh....wow......well......that's GOOD (??)
Ya. It is......good - and lonely. But good.
Hmmm. Well, hope it works out.
Thanks (?).
THE END (who am I kidding? It's not the end. It's hardly the beginning - NO ONE ever asks WHY mom's stay home, afterall). It's a bit of a fairy tale to me - being asked, not actually doing it........
No one is impressed by moms who stay at home with the kids. No one. They are not impressed because they automatically assume one of two things:
1) you're lazy (Really? Staying home??? That's your JOB??)
2) you're stupid (a job at Wal-Mart is out of your reach, isn't it? You poor stupid thing.)
"It's a good thing your husband went to school and got a good job," said one of my daycare kids' dads. "At least he can support you and your kids."
Then he handed me a cheque for looking after his kids all week.
The thing is, I have more education than my husband (1 college diploma, 2 university degrees and a Montessori Teacher's Certificate, to be exact). But, honestly, I couldn't be bothered to waste my breath on that guy, especially since I knew with his job title, he had no education whatsoever. Whatever. Let him feel superior as he handed me his money. I was staying home, being my own boss at my own successful little business, looking after my kids and his, and taking his money in return. I didn't feel inadequate at all, at least, not until the next ignorant parent came along......
"Why would you go to school all those years, just to WASTE IT by staying home?"
THAT was a doozy. Just this past year, 11 years into my WAHMing, and I received the biggest insult of all.
"What a WASTE of education."
Oh, THAT was mean. And wrong, on so many levels.
If someone can't see the value in years of education in psychology and social work coming in REALLY handy in caring for dozens of kids over the past decade, then THEY are the stupid ones. Not me.
11 years of WAHMing - and counting - and I have no regrets, just years of operating 3 successful businesses and raising 3 happy, healthy, well-adjusted kids to show for it.
If it's a waste of my education or my life, I am happy to continue wasting it all away.
