Losing and gaining - the life of a stay-at-home mom

This is not a post about dieting or weight loss my dear readers (but I just might do one about that too, soon.)
If you've read my previous entry about the not-so-good news I got at the start of the week, then this is about that - and a lot about being a stay-at-home mom too.

Since a good portion of my local work is still a pretty gray area right now, I decided to make good use of the time the situation freed up. Honestly, I thought of sulking for a week or so, look and feel depressed - but that's just a complete waste of time. And I'm the kind of person who hates doing nothing. :)


So, I have set up some goals for the time being, which includes spending more time with my daughter and getting her prepped for preschool, acquiring new skills, working on a hobby, oh the list seems endless. I add on to it every day that I feel I'm getting less productive. All this, a benefit of being a SAHM-WAHM.

Can I get an uh-huh! :) Photo from susanhinds.com

THIS IS the life of a stay-at-home mom, you lose a large portion of your social life, your corporate career, your personal income, and changes your fashion choices a bit - but you gain so much more.

1. You get to spend not just time, but GOOD QUALITY time with your kids. You don't raise them in theory, you raise them in full action - and that's not easy at all, but absolutely worth the effort. 
2. You discover a part of yourself you thought didn't exist. Uh-huh. You don't cook? Well, staying at home, with a sprinkling of idle time on your hands - the kitchen seems like a fun place to spend some time in. 
3. You get to pick up a book, and actually get to read it. I am a book worm, but when I was still working in an office setting, I can't seem to finish one from cover to cover for shorter than 2 months. Now, I can 'consume' a good story in 2-3 days at most. Love love it. 
4. You discover local nooks you just didn't know about before. Sure, the Starbucks near your office seemed like the nicest place to chill ever...until you became a SAHM, explored your town, and found out about that local coffee shop with drool-inducing pastries. It's amazing what wonders your town holds. SAHM-hood gives you the time and the motivation to discover all those great destinations. 
5. You gain patience. You learn restraint.  Honestly, I wasn't much into waiting and making pasensya when I was still working in the corporate world. For one, I worked in the customer service industry, and it wasn't exactly a place where you learn patience from, the environment was way too stressful. But when I became a stay-at-home mom, I learned to appreciate delayed gratification. When I crave for a certain kind of restaurant food, I know I have to wait 'til the weekend (more often than not) to eat it. I didn't enjoy it less, in fact, I found the experience even more enjoyable, mainly because I get to satisfy my wants while spending time with the family. 

A lot of people look down on being a stay-at-home-mom. In this age of careers and money-driven lives, that's not actually surprising. But us SAHMs, we know how a life can actually revolve around family, and still feel that we have a mission, and a rewarding set of tasks at hand. In fact, the burden actually feels heavier on our shoulders - we are expected to keep a home, we are expected to raise wonderful kids,we are expected to be amazing wives, we are expected to contribute to the household budget - oh the expectations are HUGE. Definitely NOT something anyone should look down on.

So yes, SAHM-hood makes you lose some - but you sure gain a looooot more. Enjoy it, and be proud you're a stay-at-home mom - because YOU ARE A SUPER HERO, in every sense of the word. Who else could multi-multi-task the way you do? No one. :)

Hats off to all the wonderful mommies out there!