I wrote a blog post awhile back called “strong as a mother”. (see below for full post) I came up with this design back when I wrote the post, and never got around to actually putting it out there. Then I saw the new Target shirt! So similar! I realized that the message is strong, and something that women want to say. As moms, we often are made to feel inferior if we choose to stay home and be “just a mom”. But the reality is that we’ve taken on the hardest job of our lives, and we are anything but just a mom.
I am a woman that celebrates science. I celebrate independence and having a strong career. I also celebrate being a mom and love my new job of staying home to raise my daughter.
No matter what we do as moms (work out of the home, in the home, or choose to be a sahm), we are all strong. We are all moms, and we are all amazing! Whether you are a mom, or not, we all should celebrate what moms do!
Let’s continue to share the message! Thank you in advance for your support!
T-Shirts and tank tops are on sale now here.
Half of the proceeds that we earn from this campaign will be donated to the National Girls Collaborative Project (an organization that is encouraging girls to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). The other half will be used to support the Mama’s Organized Chaos blog fees.
Original Blog Post:
Strong As A Mother
Originally posted at The Good Mother Project
Yesterday, I watched Miss Colorado’s monologue on being “just a nurse”. I knew why she was saying “just a nurse”, but I also cringed when I heard her say it. There is no such thing as “just a nurse”. Nurses are important and simply amazing human beings to do what they do. I immediately thought of moms and how, when asked what they do, many respond that they are “just a mom”.
When I became a stay at home mom, there was a certain amount of guilt that I brought along with me. I very rarely, as in extremely rarely, allow myself to just sit and relax. There is always something to do. I feel odd about the fact that I am not bringing in any money. I have always pulled in a decent salary and felt a sense of accomplishment that I was able to support myself, and that I was contributing to the family. Now I am “just a mom”. Except I refuse to answer the question that way. I’ve decided to look at my new journey as a new career. My new career is to raise my daughter- and it is no small feat.
In my eyes, my job is to take care of my daughter. I am her teacher, her caregiver, her rock, and all things in between. It is my job to make sure she is fed, clean, well-rested, and learning new skills (everything from how to talk, walk, and distinguish colors and shapes, to being polite and well mannered). The scope is massive. I used to teach high school chemistry; now I teach everything.
Since I am home, and my husband works to provide for our family, I also see it as my job to take care of our home. My husband disagrees and thinks this is a mutual job on both of our parts, which I respect him and love him so much for. He believes that my sole job is to take care of our daughter and that we can both pitch in with the cooking and cleaning. This makes me the luckiest wife on the planet! While I agree that my biggest priority is raising our daughter, I wouldn’t feel right if I expected him to come home from work and cook and clean.
So, in my mind, my job is to do everything that needs to be done. Number one, I focus on our daughter. But then I try to squeeze in doing the grocery shopping, taking care of the laundry, cooking our meals, cleaning the house, taking care of the yard, picking up odds and ends at the store that we need, scheduling appointments, paying the bills, fixing the car seat recall, getting the oil changed in my car, etc. You name it, I try and take care of it.
I also still have this sense of guilt for not bringing in any money, however. And, since I am the one doing the grocery shopping and buying our everyday necessities, I feel like I am the only one spending our money. Because of this, I decided to find ways online to earn a little income. I don’t earn much, but I make sure to carve out a little time for these opportunities. It is certainly not necessary for all that I do, but it makes me feel a sense of accomplishment and that I have something to myself- so it is worth finding the time to do.
When we decided a couple of years ago that I would transition into being a stay at home mom, I knew that I was going to feel a sense of guilt. I knew that, as a proud career woman, I might be so inclined as to answer the question of what I do, with a response such as “I’m just a mom”. The reality, however, is that there is no such thing as “just a mom”, and I have the privilege of being a mom. I have the privilege of embarking on an amazing new journey. So, my new career is to be a stay at home mom. My new career is to be anything and everything that my daughter and my family need me to be. My new career is nothing for the weak at heart. It is a highly demanding job that only the best of the best can do and do well. My new career is to be as strong as humanly possible in all scenarios that are thrown at me- to be as strong as a mother.
No one could have mentally prepared me for what that means- to be as strong as a mother. A mother has strength that is indescribable. Mother’s don’t look at themselves as strong, though- I’m guilty of it for sure. I just know that I am doing what needs to be done, and that I am doing it to the best of my ability. It’s when I look at other mamas that I see the strength that it takes. When I see my sister (who has 3 children), I see strength. She has more children than she has hands, yet she is always able to lend a helping hand to each of her babies. I see strength when I look at my daughter. At 10 months old she is already so strong and so brave. So my challenge is to recognize that she gets that strength from someone. My challenge is to recognize that the strength I see in other moms, is in me too. I am strong. I am as strong as a mother; because I am a mother- and I am the best mother I know how to be.
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