At the risk of being terribly predictable, I can’t help but
write about thankfulness this week. If I were to write out my thankful list, it
would be a thousand pages long, so I’ll stick to just one thing this time.
I am so thankful I get to be a stay-at-home mom right now.
It’s not a prestigious job. Two of my college friends—sharp
women who could be eating up the corporate world—have told me recently how let down people are
when they give their occupation as stay-at-home mom. I’ve seen that, too, and I used to always find
a way to work “writer/editor” into the discussion rather than confess that what
I really do is pour juice and fold clothes. It sounds even less noble when your
kids are in school and people wonder what on earth you’re still doing at home. I’m
thankful that the older I get, the less I care how it sounds and the more I
realize how important it is.
I’m thankful for the time I have to serve more people in
more ways than I ever have before. I can truly be there for people in a way I
never could when I was working and managing my own family. I’m so thankful I
get to be used by God that way. I’m thankful that I have time during the day
for all the cleaning, cooking, purchasing, scheduling, and organizing that working
moms have to squeeze into evenings and weekends.
I’m thankful that I don’t have a job that causes me to view
my sick child as a nuisance or school vacation days as a dreaded inconvenience.
I’m thankful that I can be home and fully available to my kids at the end of
the school day. Last spring my oldest daughter went through a rough time at
school. When she came through the front door at 3:35, I needed to be well caught
up, well prayed up, well rested, and well nourished in order to help her
develop through this in faith and character. I shudder to think how
impatient and unmerciful the working me would have been.
I’m so very thankful that in this character-building period
of my children’s lives—where they still care what I think and want
to talk to me about everything—I can focus on them with little else competing
for my attention. I’m thankful that I had a job I loved and was able to do it
when they were little, when it felt like all I was doing was keeping them
alive. (Yes, I know there was more to it than that.) But, oh, how I love these
critical days of their late childhood and teen years when they’re figuring out
the kinds of people they want to be. I wouldn’t want to miss any part of this.
I feel like I was made for this, and I’m thankful I get to do it full time.
I have the privilege of sitting with each of my kids after
school and talking through their day. I get to spend my evenings memorizing
Awana verses with them and reading with them and practicing their school poems.
Even when I’m not loving these things, I’m thankful.
I’m thankful that I have the time and opportunities to
develop relationships with my children’s friends and their parents. I’m
thankful—extra thankful—for a husband who doesn’t ask me to earn money and life circumstances
that don't require me to.
Sometimes we stay-at-home moms need a good pep talk to see
the value in our work, to feel like we’re
contributing members of society even if we don’t step out of the house all day.
If that’s you, I hope this helps. Remember these things the next time you have
to list your profession on a questionnaire or you’re asked what
you do by someone who’s expecting something more grand than the answer you’ll give.
Being a stay-at-home mom is a privilege, and for me, there is nothing more
grand. That’s why I’m thankful.
