Housewife Rambling

Preface:  Everyone is entitled to lead their life in the way she chooses.

This time of year is a time when a lot of my friends get busy and therefore are, for all practical purposes, unavailable.  Ironic that while they are swamped with their activities, I am in the midst of simplifying mine.  I had been feeling of less worth than those around me for giving up the contributions I make outside my family, but I'm thinking that it's o.k. that I can't do my best as a mother/wife/housekeeper while still juggling a handful of outside volunteering.  Society's reaction to housewives makes me feel selfish for not contributing a ton of time to my community, but I'm reminding myself that this is the same society that supports and even encourages cohabitation out of wedlock, the society that believes in abortion as a form of birth control, and the society that believes that children will fare just as healthily when raised in institutions such as day care instead of by their moms and dads.  I profoundly disagree with so much that society deems acceptable and preferable that it's crazy to think its value of housewives should be taken into consideration.  Unless my volunteering is directly related to my children or my God, it has been officially cut from my life.  Unless this volunteering only requires my time when my husband can keep my children, it has been cut from my life.  As I get older, I realize that the contributions I made through my volunteering were truly selfish.  I felt as though I needed to nurture the "me" that I was away from my family.  My real obligation to my community is to parent in a way that produces healthy, responsible, mature adults who will make the world a better place.

There was a time when I thought I would have no choice but to go back to work.  Between student loans, legal fees, tuition, gas bills, etc., we just didn't see a way to ever gain footing over our finances.  I began to search for openings in schools and get my resume and portfolio in order.  Then it dawned on me-- even if we never make headway on our finances, I made a vow to God to do my best to raise my children in The Faith.  How could I call working 40+ hour weeks my best effort at raising responsible Christians?  How could I even claim to raise them when I would be leaving them in another person's care for almost half of their waking hours?  Instead, I prayed, waited, budgeted, cut back, and focused on my housewife duties.  A few months later, God showed us a new path that would allow us to take more control of our finances sooner.  Yes, if I went back to work, we would be debt free except for our house in just a few years rather than an decade, but working would cost much, much more than we would earn. 

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http://www.komu.com/satellite/SatelliteRender/KOMU.com/ba8a4513-c0a8-2f11-0063-9bd94c70b769/95903676-80ce-0971-0068-80139e602a04

This article is highly amusing.  First, I believe that Rep. Still is confused about what a stay-at-home mom is.  I find it hilarious that she makes the statement that we need to move women into the workforce rather than out of it.  No one is suggesting that women be pushed out of the workforce; at-home-parent does not encompass women with no children.  Second, I'm failing to see how $600 a year is going to ensure that those mothers return to work when their children are grown.  Third, as far as I am concerned, 16 years old is not grown.  I'm not sure how I feel about balancing the child-care tax credit with this measure.  I'm really not sure that either are wise.