It’s amazing what people say when they hear of a stay at home mom (especially one with more than one of those little boppers waddling around)…

 

‘how does she do that by herself?!’ (well she’s not always by herself, and the community is there to support, and God helps, and even the kids themselves help)

 

‘so do you just send her a check?!’ (well we share a bank account and we work together to allocate where any family income goes based on needs and modest wants; just because she isn’t getting paid doesn’t mean i don’t ‘pay her’; what’s mine is hers, and vice versa)

 

‘well i know i couldn’t do that!’ (ok then don’t! lol but if you give it a try you might be surprised what you can accomplish when you chose to do tasks endorsed by the scriptures; further a tip from my mother: whenever you have a child, it’s hard, chaotic, and pushes you to the limit)

 

‘oh i just couldn’t stand being home all the time!’ and ‘you homeschool?! gasp!’ So who says she is home all the time? she takes the kids on field trips, she goes to see her friends, her friends come to see her, she can take kids with her to run errands (being embarrassed by them acting out now and then isn’t the end of the world fyi), we get babysitters to go on dates together on a regular basis, the older kids start being able to watch the younger kids while the mom runs errands or has some spa time etc; and if there are seasons with less frolicking about town while the family scrimps and saves to get through college and start a career, a little home life never killed anyone; we make home an adventure, and travel by great books and stories, and remember that little thing called imagination? And who’s to say she doesn’t enjoy being home? I love being home and wish I could be there more often; if she wishes, we can make arrangements for me to cut back at work and her to work a part time job somewhere, but this frequently isn’t even desired).

 

‘if i ever do that it won’t be for a long long time, i’m not ready for that!’ (no one is ready for that, you just do it (and btw, are you aware that your physiological ability to have kids doesn’t last forever in this life? you best take that into account); jump in now, you’ll work out your flaws, rather than jumping in much later, flaws still in tact; how does postponing parenting make you a better parent? riddle me that batman)

 

lastly, if it’s hard sometimes, you’re in good company, Jesus had a pretty rough go at it too. An easy life I suppose has value if one doesn’t know about the world to come, but we do know about the world to come, and the investments we are making are therefore most logical and rational.

 

These little boppers are like plants who haven’t fully bloomed; they are wonderful now, but when you see them in their completed format, they’ll be so majestic that you will likely lament that you didn’t take a similar course yourself, and you’ll wonder why you thought it was such a hard thing to walk that path…

 

We (humans great and small) are genetically wired to do hard things.