I have to tell you; I am very proud to be a stay-at-home mom. That actually surprises me a little bit. But it's true. I don't like the term "housewife" or "homemaker" and when those are the selections on an application or survey, I tick "other" and write in either "stay-at-home-mom" or if I'm feeling really indignant, "molder of little lives" or "wiper of runny noses" or simply, "SuperMom". Why not? If a garbage collector can call him/herself a "waste management engineer", why can't I give myself my own title as well?

It wasn't always like this. I used to be kind of ashamed that I stayed home. I was laid off from my IT consulting sales job back in January of 2003. By March or April, I was feeling guilty for not even thinking of looking for a job. When I mentioned this to my mom that "it's not like I have kids to take care of or anything", her reply was, "what's wrong with staying home and keeping the home-fires burning?" Wasn't that a great way to look at it? Seriously! It bought me a few more months of guilt free sluggishness until I found out I was pregnant with my son that Summer. Funny thing is, after trying for 10 years to have a baby, we gave up. Don't tell me stress is unrelated to infertility!!

This was the first "vacation" I'd taken in 12 years. Even when away at Martha's Vineyard or Daytona or Vail or wherever my "vacation" was at the time, I was ALWAYS checking in; email, voice mail. Hey, when you're in sales working on commission, there's no such thing as a real vacation. Add desperately trying to have a baby on top of all the professional stress, it's no wonder there was nothing to show for all our "hard work"!

Anyway, I digress. Point is, I can stand up on my kitchen stool and shout, "I'm a full-time mom with healthy, emotionally-stable, intelligent, and secure children and God-damnit, I PROUD of that!"

Howzat, Mom? :)