That Stay at Home Mom Article

A lot of people have asked me if my blog post, A Day in the Life of a Working Mom, was in response to a post that recently went viral and was written just the day before mine. (You're a stay-at-home Mom? What do you DO all day?)The answer is no, pure coincidence!

Others have asked what I think about that article. Oh boy...

Well, if I’m going to put it out there then I guess I’ll really put it out there! 

Let me start by saying that the majority of my Mom friends are stay-at-home- Moms, "SAHMs" if you will. I’m pretty sure that they don’t sit down all day long. Ever. The definition of "taking a long lunch" is when their toddler is boycotting eating that day and they have to stick it out with them. Their bosses are only three feet tall but somehow can still dictate bathroom breaks. No one I know is sitting around watching soaps and eating bonbons.

I wholeheartedly agree with the spirit of the article but am truly discouraged by the approach.

First, in defense of the working Mom, he completely fails to acknowledge that working Moms actually do raise and parent their children, too. He writes as if we get off work at 5pm and then we are done for the day. Last I checked my kids do not cook their own dinner, read themselves bedtime stories and not get up in the middle of the night just because I work outside of the home.

Also, is he not bashing working moms just to get his point across? He tells working Moms that they are expendable at their jobs and then lists out the only exceptions he feels are justifiable for Moms to work (single mothers, single income isn’t enough, etc.). Isn’t this Mom-bashing the very thing that he is angry about to begin with?

Judging from my gut reaction and how this article made me feel, I think the article only serves to add fuel to a fire that doesn’t need to exist. Why is the comment “must be nice!” so offensive? Why can’t a working Mom admire a SAHM and think staying at home with kids is a “nice” thing. I certainly do. Just as my SAHM friends would say there are “nice” things about my job. They are right, there are.

I wish he would have acknowledged the fact that raising children is a tough job any way you slice it, and stopped there. Mothers are mothers and we all work hard whether we have a career outside of the home or not. Enough of the Mom-petition!

Casey out.

[Steps off soap box.]

And because no blog post would be complete without the kiddos that make me so dog-gone opinionated, here you go!