I've gotten a lot of questions about me wanting to be a stay at home mom and I'm going to tell you why it's so important to me, my husband, and my children. Trust me, I don't feel like I have to justify or defend our decisions in life to anyone, but in today's world or outside of the LDS faith, being a stay at home mom is nearly unheard of and people don't understand it.
These are some examples of things people have said to me:
"you're not going to work even though you worked so hard to get through nursing school and spent all that time?"
"don't you want to have that extra income as a nurse? You could make so much money!"
one of my favorites:
"Won't you get bored?" bahaha. No.
I want to raise my children. With the ever increasing evil in this world, this is probably the most important reason. I don't want to take my children to a babysitter or daycare while I work a 12 hour shift and not have any idea how they are being treated or what they are being taught. Note to the reader- I understand there are many women that do not have the opportunity to be home with their children and that does not make them bad mothers. But because I do have the opportunity I will not pass it up just to make more money that we don't need. It is my responsibility to teach my children and raise them in righteousness. I am not naive to think they won't learn things contrary to what we believe or would teach them in our home, but by being home I have ample opportunity to teach them the good things so that they have a foundation for when they go out into the world.
It's not because I just don't want to work. Being a stay at home mom and a homemaker isn't about sitting around in your PJ's all day reading a book or watching T.V. It's about loving, nurturing, teaching, singing, reading, keeping them safe, being there for their "firsts" and celebrating at the right moment. It's disciplining them our way, not a babysitters way, and doing it lovingly. It's about being there when your needed not 12 hours later. It's about having breakfast and lunches made/packed (when that time comes) and dinner on the table. Yes, you can do some of these things when you work...because everyone has to eat, but there is more to it than that.
I love this quote by Ezra Taft Benson:
"First, take time to always be at the crossroads when your children are coming or going-when they leave and return from school-when they leave and return from dates-when they bring friends home. Be there at the crossroads whether your children are six or sixteen."
Being a Mother is a sacred responsibility that should never be taken lightly. I want to always be at those crossroads.
To answer those above questions:
Yes, Nursing school is tough and yes it took a lot of time, but I am grateful for my education because it's important to have an education and it has gotten Greg through school while allowing us to be financially stable. Someday, I may need to use it again, but for now I don't and my sole responsibility is to my husband and children.
Sure the extra money would be nice (when is it not nice?), but we don't need it. If we needed it, it would be a different story. I would never trade my children for
extra money.
Boredom isn't even possible. There is so much to be done. The majority of my day (when I'm not working those 3 days a week) is spent with my almost 2 year old and the other times is spent cleaning and cooking. Brag moment- I was wearing an ohio university shirt that spelled out Ohio University and he pointed to every letter and told me what they were. He's awesome. He has trouble with W he thinks it's an "M"
and for some reason G and H are the same a lot of the time, but other than that- he rocks!
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| Greg won this dinosaur out of one of those claw machines...Evan sleeps with it every night along with his tiger, bunny, and dog. |
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| Someday he'll smile like a normal child... |
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| someone likes carrots! |
