Now i know how to take a compliment and so i said, "thank you!" but i remember thinking little did she know that it was actually the first day i had taken a shower and put on something other than blue jeans in about four days (well, maybe i didn't wait four days to take a shower!). You see, I stay home most Mondays and telecommute on Fridays. I go into the "office" three days a week. Furthermore, that Tuesday, my husband and I took the day off to go vote and then to go to my son's parent/teacher conference at his Montessori pre-school (and afterwards, we had planned a "date" lunch!)!
Anyway, the whole mini-conversation made me think about the stereotypical assumptions about "working mothers" and "stay-at-home moms". But what do we mean by these terms? Aren't "stay at home" moms, working moms as well? Aren't "working moms" (full-time/part-time outside of the home) "stay at home" moms as well (just not as much?)?
The distinctions certainly are not so black and white as you might think. For instance, what do you call a mom that works professionally full/part-time from home and takes care of her children? What do you call the mother that work professionally full/part-time outside the home and takes care of her children? What do you call the "stay at home mother" who does not work professionally outside the home and takes care of her children? These distinctions appear to be clear as mud to me, but the one thing that does seem clear to me though is that all of these mothers are indeed "working" and are "at home" taking care of their children, no?
1 comment:
You bring up some really good points and questions. I struggle with this issue often as I've had my feet in both "camps" since I had children. I think the problem is with the term "work." Unfortunately, raising children has never been considered work in way we use that term traditionally. But anyone that has children knows that to be a good parent takes more work than any job.
RKM
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