On Facebook there is a place where you can share with everyone your job and education. It shows up right under your name so anyone who visits your profile can see it. I have friends who are studying at BYU, U of U, USU, and SUU. I have friends who work for The Walt Disney Company, locksmiths, restaurants, schools, and as engineers, teachers, ministers, and professors. I couldn't quite decide what to put for myself. After all, I thought, I'm just a mom. I could put "Self-Employed as a Home Maker" but it's so much more than that.
"Home Maker" almost seems to have a negative connotation. "Oh," you can hear people say in your head, "So, you quit going to school when you only had two years left and now you stay home and take care of your kid and that's it? Well I go to school, work, take care of my baby and husband, play piano, dance, sing, write books, volunteer at the homeless shelter, and do everything else that makes me look a million times more amazing than you." Sigh. Why would anyone want to be a stay at home mom when all these other moms are doing such amazing things?
Well, I'm NOT just a stay at home mom. Sure I cook, clean, change diapers, give baths, have story time and cuddle time and nap time, vacuum, sew and other crafty things, and do my Visiting Teaching, but it's so much more than that. I'm not just making a home, I'm teaching, training, learning, and loving.
President Hinckley, our late Prophet, said
this, "I salute most warmly and sincerely you dedicated and wonderful homemakers. I have only respect for the title “housewife.”
I clipped this from the Wall Street Journal, titled “The Most Creative Job in the World”:
'It involves taste, fashion, decorating, recreation, education, transportation, psychology, romance, cuisine, designing, literature, medicine, handicraft, art, horticulture, economics, government, community relations, pediatrics, geriatrics, entertainment, maintenance, purchasing, direct mail, law, accounting, religion, energy and management. Anyone who can handle all those has to be somebody special. She is. She’s a homemaker.'"
And so, I can say proudly that I am working on becoming all of those things. I study on my own time, I learn from experience, and I love every minute of it. No, I don't study at a University, but I do seek out books, articles, and research as I learn and decide what is best for my family.
Sister Hinckley has said this about motherhood:
“It is the mothers of young children I would like to address first. These are golden years for you. These are years when you will probably do the most important work of your lives. Don’t wish away your years of caring for small children. Life is what happens to you while you are making other plans. This is a time of great opportunity for you to build the kingdom. When you teach children to love their Heavenly Father, you have done one of the greatest things you will ever do. If you can be a full-time homemaker, be grateful. If not, you must do what is best for you. I for one have never felt a need to apologize for my role as a full-time homemaker.
“These are busy, busy days for you. I have seen women in all kinds of circumstances—Chinese women working on road repairs, European women working in the fields, Asian women sweeping streets—but it is my opinion that … Mormon women are among the hardest working women in the world. They plant gardens and they bottle the produce; they sew and bargain shop. They go on the heart fund drive. They take dinners to new mothers and the sick in their neighborhoods. They take care of aged parents. They climb Mount Timpanogos with Cub Scouts, go to Little League games, sit on the piano bench while Jennie practices, do temple work, and worry about getting their journals up-to-date. My heart bursts with pride when I see them come into church on Sunday, some as early as 8:30 in the morning, their children all clean and shiny, their arms loaded with supplies, as they head for classes where they teach other women’s children. They scrub their houses with little or no domestic help and then try to be the glamour girl in their husband’s life when he arrives home at night. But remember, my dear young friends, that you are now doing the work that God intended you to do. Be grateful for the opportunity.”
To all you mothers who are at home full-time, sometimes not being able to leave the house for days at a time because of sick kids, fussy babies, or only having one car and that's the one your husband takes to work, continue to be strong and know that your recognition won't come in a paycheck, a 401k, a diploma, or a medal, but will be happy, healthy children who grow up and thank you for your time. Thanks Mom, for always being home for us and still being home for us!
