Being a Stay at Home Mom is an Honorable Profession

Stacie Mahoe:  Aloha!  I hope you are having a wonderful day.  My name is Stacie and I’m not just saying Aloha because I like the way it sounds, I actually do live in Hawaii and was born and raised here.  I actually have some Hawaiian blood flowing through my veins so today I would like to just send you a warm welcome from Hawaii. 

I am the mother of four beautiful children.  I have three girls and one son; all of them are under the age of ten.  I just wanted to take some time today to send a message of encouragement out to stay at home moms.  I’m soon to be a stay at home mom again, at the end of June.  My employee status at work will be ending and I’ll be at home for at least the entire summer if not beyond that. 

So I’m very very much looking forward to staying at home with my children again but on the other hand I also know that being a stay at home mom or stay at home dad is not always easy.  I know when I first became a stay at home mom after my oldest daughter was born, one of the challenges I faced was the fact that not everyone felt the same way about a mother or father being home with their children.  I thought that raising my daughter and being there for her was probably one of thee most important things that I would ever do in my entire life!  But not everyone thinks along those lines. 

I can remember running into acquaintances, people I knew before I had my children and before I got married, they knew me through my pre-baby life and the conversation would always start out really really well.  They would ask me how I’m doing and I would say well we are doing really great and they would make some great comment about how cute my baby was but sooner or later the question would always come up so what are you doing now?  Or what are you up to now? 

And of course I would say that I’m staying home and I’m taking care of my daughter and most times this person would pause and say something like is that it?  And I would politely explain that yes I would like to be the one who was home taking care of my daughter and raising her since my husband earns enough money to enable that I’m really happy to have that opportunity to be there for her. 

But inside I was always a little hurt and disheartened that people would refer to me staying home and taking care of my daughter as something that was not as important as say being in college or being at work climbing the corporate ladder and I’m sure other stay at home moms, maybe even you out there have been through similar scenarios and it can be discouraging. 

So I just wanted to let you know today that being a stay at home mom or being a stay at home dad and being there for your baby or your babies is a really beautiful thing!  If you ever feel discouraged, keep your head up, be proud of who you are and if you feel like no one appreciates what you are doing remember that I way over here in Hawaii I do thank you because one day you’re going to unleash your child on society and I for one will be glad that you took the time to raise a fine outstanding human being because that human being of yours is going to be out there in the real world with my children. 

I’ll be thankful that you took the time to guide them along the way to being an honorable person.  Another thing to keep in mind is that our babies are only babies for a few years - work, travel and other things will always be there!  So take the time and enjoy every single minute you have with your baby.  Don’t let anybody take that a way from you!  Have a wonderful day!