The Stay at Home Mom

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/article1139839.ece

This is an AMAZING article about the stigma attached to women who decide to stay at home with their child and drop their career goals. While there are areas of the article that I don't agree with, I think it really hits the nail on the head when it comes to how I feel I am perceived as a house wife.

When out and about, either teaching or at a group with my son, I always come across the question, "what do you do?". I love to answer back that I stay home with my son, and teach on the side, occasionally to help with the bills. Most of the people I meet balk at me, asking how I do it; don't I get bored; don't I feel that money is tight; do I feel guilty for not being able to get what I want, when I want it?

I am always the first to tell people that we had to make a lot of cuts for me to be able to stay home. And while I miss going out to dinner on a weekly basis, going to the movies regularly, using the car without thinking about the price of gas, going out with friends and running a tab and I really REALLY miss Rogers Digital Cable, every time I look at my son and the daily quirks and quandaries that I am able to see each day, I know that it is well worth the sacrifice. And really, our lives are better for it!

We spend more time walking, reading and cooking than we ever did before, and we have managed to make even the simplest errand in to a family affair. It is a simpler life that doesn't focus so much on the "haves" and "wants", but on the experiences that we create as a family.

More on this later. I've got to get the chicken in the oven :D