Finding my Worth as a Stay at Home Mom

Figuring out the definition and application of being a Stay at Home Mom has been a little more of a transition than I thought it might be.  Amelia was born a week after school started.  I didn't notice myself missing school the first week because I was already a week overdue and about to pop!  After she was born though, and Josh went back to teach at his school, the strange feeling set in.  I was missing the start of a school year.  My career as a teacher has been put on hold and instead I was home to take care of an infant.  It felt like I lost my whole identity and gained a new one, all in a matter of weeks.  Josh would ask me what I did each day and my list consisted of changing countless diapers, feeding Amelia bottles, cleaning the house and cooking.  These things seemed so mundane and meaningless.  I told him that because I wasn't "working" I felt like I wasn't intelligent anymore and was kind of useless.  What are changing diapers and feeding bottles doing to make any difference in the world?  When I was teaching, I saw results of the change I was making in those students.  Then God reminded me that if I didn't feed and change Amelia, she would die!  Though it doesn't seem real impactful at the time, I am showing her that she's loved by doing those things.

Today I read a few blog posts about finding worth as a Stay at Home Mom and found so much encouragement. One blog said:

"By the world's standards, it might not seem as though we have accomplished much. However, the world's standards don't apply to the profession of motherhood. In this profession, the little things are the big things: snuggling an infant, playing peekaboo, changing diapers, nursing, giving a bottle, attending tea parties with dolls, driving trucks in the sandbox, playing catch in the backyard, having a snack on the porch, listening to the saga of a teenage breakup, picking up a sick child from school … the list goes on and on. These are the accomplishments of motherhood. They can't be checked off a list. They don't earn you a raise. They are rarely measurable. But they matter a lot.

You and I can't look for our sense of accomplishment on a daily basis. We have to look for it over the long haul … that's about 18 years or so. What I do today does matter, but it might not be noted or valued for a long time. A woman in the profession of mothering serves and cares for her family as an extension of her relationship with God: "Whatever you did for one of the least of these…you did for me" (Matthew 25:40). With that perspective, there are no menial tasks, there is much accomplishment and there is a higher sense of purpose. Understanding that perspective is the highest form of self-care there is."