Stay at Home Mom vs. Working Mom

I was watching today's episode of Dr. Phil....let me first say, I put my back out today...ouch...and couldn't reach the remote to change the channel. Not that I at ALL have an issue with Dr. Phil, it's just not my type of programming. OK back to the story. The first segment involved basically one self-righteous stay at home mom bashing working mothers. WHOAH. WHO does she think SHE is?

My personal perspective? I've seen both sides of the fence. I've been a mom working in the corporate world, and most recently, I've become a work from home mom. I will never use the term housewife to describe myself, not that there's anything wrong with housewives. I just happen to run two businesses from my house while caring for my son. It's a job. It's definitely 2 jobs. I'm so incredibly busy all day, and always multi-tasking. I'm certainly no Martha friggin Stewart! I'm an ok cook, not a brilliant one, and hardly cook anything with more than 3 ingredients! I do your typical mom duties, on top of taking phone consultations, answering endless emails, updating 3 websites and 3 blogs, doing personal and business finances, and, of course, watching Thomas the Tank Engine's sing-a-long about 13 times. It's hard work.

My hat is also off to mothers who don't have the option to stay at home and they work full-time while balancing parenthood and house duties. I know the guilt that runs through a working mom's head. I experienced it for the first year and a half of my son's life. It's really painstaking to leave your child in the care of someone else while you go to work for 8 hours. But I UNDERSTAND IT! It's hard work.

The bottom line is each family is different. You need to do what's best for YOU and YOUR CHILDREN and YOUR FAMILY, not what's best for your neighbors. Us mothers really need to stick together and not point fingers at those who do it differently than ourselves.

Be sure to pay a visit to DOOCE.COM, a blog written by a mom whose opinions I value tremendously! Her blog is one of the handful that inspired me to start posting MY daily rants and raves.

Cheers!