My job

I have been taking a lot of surveys lately, trying to build up my Swagbucks to help pay for Christmas (which worked really well btw) and I noticed something that started me thinking.  All the surveys asked about my work, usually in two stages. The first one asked if I was employed and had a list of options like, part time, full time, retired, student, etc. The second stage had a list of jobs, such as clerical, administrative, retail, and so forth.

Now, most of the time the first stage had stay at home parent as an option. But the second stage never did. The option that seemed to be there for stay at home parents would probably be "I don't work" although occasionally they had "Other." I'm ok with "Other," but not with "I don't work." I do work. I work all the time. I have a lot of different jobs that fit under the description of stay at home mom. I thought I'd like to do a list of some of those jobs.

I am a cook.

I am a dishwasher.

I am a maid.

I am a travel planner.

I am a photographer.

I am a chronicler.

I am a laundry worker (bigtime!)

I am a milk-maker.

I am a mediator.

I am a translator of strange languages.

I am a mind reader.

I am a scheduler.

I am a student (and teacher) in the school of patience.

I am an owie kisser (I still can't believe that actually works!)

I am a nightmare antidote.

I am a tear wiper.

I am a nurse.

I am a nose wiper.

I deal with toxic waste.

I am an accountant.

I am a chauffeur

I am a storyteller.

I am a decision-maker.

I am a researcher.

I am a teacher.

I am a disciplinarian.

I am a cuddler.

I am a problem solver.

I am a policy maker.

I am a personal shopper.

I am so many other things that are hard to put in words.

And I am always on call. 24/7. I never get a break from being mom. I can be wakened at 2:30 in the morning by a child with croup or baby that had a nightmare who needs soothing. No one else can do my job. I am Mommy.






* I want to add that I am in no way excluding working moms from this list. They do these things while also having to go out and work away from their children. I was a working mom for 9 months, and it was much worse than being a stay at home mom.