Respect this Job

Truth be told, a stay-at-home mom would rank dead last on one of those occupation comparison charts.

Why? It's all about the money. I mean really, when you start doing the math, we moms are losing out, and big time. Think solely of the retirement savings I sacrificed by giving up my full-time salary for 10 years. Had I stuck with my career, I would now have an additional $200k in my retirement account. In another 10 years, it would be half a million. Doesn't it sound like an extreme risk to my future to lose that large a sum of dough? Am I counting on my husband's retirement and earnings to make up for mine vanishing? I suppose so, and that doesn't make me feel one iota better about it.

I don't even care for that term"stay-at-home mom", it gets under my skin. But the word that really makes me squirm is "housewife". When my dad wrote that as my occupation on a bank form a few years back, I felt so low I knew I couldn't devote my life to being just a "housewife". Why? I must be letting the low value society puts on the job smother my own judgment. It's not respected to be a housewife. But when I think about all the jobs I'm doing during the day, and I know I am far from lazy or idle, I value my job very highly. When I think about my grandmas, who were housewives, I respect them very much. But I'm not proud to tell anyone that I'm a housewife. Conversations usually drift to my hobbies, because what is there to say about being a housewife?

Here's what I can say about being a housewife:  I'm a piano teacher, a math tutor, a baseball trainer, a counselor, a nurse, a barber, a housekeeper, a cook, a seamstress, a mechanic, a gardener, a driver, a teacher, a swim instructor, a mom and a wife. How much is that worth? It's priceless.