I am a stay at home mom

Wow.  Never in a million years would that be what my 20 year old self would predict for my life at age 30.  Even my 29 year old self might not have guessed it.  I’ve worked since I was 12…starting with babysitting, re-selling Beanie Babies, whatever I could to make money.  I’ve always had that independent streak– if I provided for myself I would never be dependent on someone else.  And until just a two months ago, that’s how I lived.

Three days after I got married, I quit my job.  That’s not WHY I quit my job, but after the amazingness of our wedding weekend, I couldn’t bear the thought of returning to the toxic environment that I had been slaving away at for the last year and a half.  It didn’t matter how much money I stood to make.  So I did it– and for the first time in my adult life, I am unemployed and by my own choosing no less!

It was terrifying losing that lucrative second income.  The thought of having to *gasp* budget, sounded like a major drag.  But my husband and I had been planning for the possibility of such a situation (like I said, the place I had been working was the pits) and decided that it was in the best interest of my health and our family for me to get out.

So here I am, taking what I call my “belated maternity leave”– if you can believe it, I only really took TWO weeks completely off from work when I had my baby earlier this year.  I started working pretty much full time, albeit from home, less than 14 days after returning from the hospital.  And I always regretted that.

I do miss adult company sometimes–living 20 minutes from Downtown means that it’s a special trip for friends and family to come visit, or for me to venture out to go see them.  But I am getting to spend so much quality time with the girls and that is priceless.  I’ve been able to get parts of the house in order that I hand’t had the energy to tackle while working 40 plus hours a week.  And on my husband’s days off (Sunday-Tuesday), we get to spend the entire day(s) together as a family.  That time together is what I missed the most while working.

I don’t know if I will be a SAHM (I’ve finally been getting a grasp of mommy acronyms) indefinitely, but until an amazing opportunity presents itself that will work WITH and not AGAINST our family, at home I will stay.  Some days I’m not sure how the hell I got myself into this (usually when the baby refuses to go to sleep for two hours)– but I’m getting the hang of it.  And I consider every day that the kids are fed, bathed, and in bed with a smile on their face a success.  Amazing how priorities can change.