Top Five Things Not To Say To A SAHM:
5) So what do you do? . . . Oh. Hmm. Interesting.
4) How’d you decide to do that?
3) I could never be a stay at home mom. I would get so bored.
2) What do you do with all that free time?! Do you wish you worked?
. . . and, my personal favorite (seriously- someone asked me this!) . . .
1) So, have you always been a stay-at-home mom?
I am officially a full-time “SAHM,” known to laymen as a “Stay At Home Mom” (or homemaker, desperate housewife, or whatever other moniker you choose). Though I had announced that I would be pursuing a Masters in Social Work, the pursuit has (at least temporarily) ended. I have decided- for a variety of reasons- to put off higher education for the time being. I did not finalize my decision until the drop-deadline for the semester, but I had been mulling it over seriously since the beginning of December. Even though I am certain I have made the right choice, it has not been as easy as I had expected for two reasons:
First, I am a typical “Northwestern” girl- ambitious and performance driven, with a desire to define myself by what I “accomplish” in a career. Mothering is not highly regarded, especially in a career-driven city like DC, but it is of infinite value.
Second, being a SAHM is hard! In addition to adjusting to unstructured days and loneliness, Simona and I are in the midst of a difficult transition from nursing to eating more solid foods. There are no rule books or procedural guides to help me troubleshoot.
So here’s a tip of the hat to all those SAHMs (and SAHDs!), especially with more than one child!
(If you’ve made it this far, thanks. Now you can go browse the updated photos.)
