Challenges Every Stay At Home Mom Faces

Imagine that you live in your grandmothers’ time. In the 1940s, you would have worn a knee length skirt, hat, gloves and court shoes. The Depression and the war may have pushed you into the workforce, but government pronouncements and policies reinforced the ideology of the traditional family. If you were married and worked outside the home, you would have faced job discrimination.

Only two generations later, have you noticed that opinion seems to have turned against stay at home moms? Yet, 23 percent of married-couple families with children under 15 have a stay-at-home mother. Five million women and 154,000 dads stayed home to raise their children.

The roles of stay-at-home moms have even been measured in dollars. Imagine paying for nannies, cooks, cleaners, drivers, psychologists, laundry maids and others who would need to be hired to replace the jobs that stay at home moms do. Salary.com say that a stay at home mom's work is worth USD $112,962 a year and estimate that she works about 95 hours a week. 

Having useful strategies will help during your child’s developing years. The first strategy is to adopt this one statement as your truth.

Your decision to be a stay at home mom is the best choice for your family.

Did you hear that? Feel free to read that statement once more. Now, let’s talk about other strategies.

1. Tell your family and friends that you want to be included in adult activities. You may not be able to participate in all things all of the time, and you may have some kind of slime on your shoulder, but you need to know that your stay at home mom status will not leave you excluded.

2. Find resources that help you learn about what it takes to be an exceptional mother and to help your children thrive.

3. No matter what talent you think have or don’t have, write, make art and make music. Then embellish it with your sense of humor. Creativity can be shared lavishly with your children. Make noise, make a mess, make fun.

4. Join a mothers’ club. Get the support you deserve and grab good ideas from moms who have already found solutions to the issues you are experiencing now.

5. If the thought of talking non-stop about babies is more than you can bear, join groups that satisfy your other interests. There’s every chance that you can bring baby along. Be prepared to leave the room from time to time when your sweet angel “spits the dummy”.

6. If you want an income and to keep your professional skills sharpened, find out which companies will allow you to work from home. Alternatively, consider freelance work or starting a home-based business.

7. Finally, organize a babysitter and book yourself (and your husband or partner) a great holiday on a cheap airline. Escape. Renew. Re-energize.

Need more motivation? Read this great post by Kelly Swanson.

Your choice to be a stay at home mom means something important. When your child needs you, you are there. In return, you get the first word, the first tooth and the first step. Meet the challenges and it will naturally follow that your gift to your children will be absolutely magnificent.