Just a Mom!

Okay, so today has been a rough day to put it mildly! To sum it up, I will copy and paste an email response that I sent to Scott earlier...

*We are fine. I figured my phone was just being a piece of sh!t. Olivia refuses to nap (or eat). It's a flashback from Abby at this age. I am about to lose my mind and shut myself in a dark room and cry. The minute you get home, I'm going tanning and I might drink an entire bottle of wine tonight. Just a heads up!

*Those of you that know me, you know that most of what I say is dripping with sarcasm and meant with humor...I am not really going to lock myself in a room and drink a bottle of wine, but I will admit that it crosses my mind from time to time! haha! Anyways, about an hour after sending that, I received an email that I had read before, one that I LOVE!....

*Just a Mom!

*A woman renewing her drivers license at the County Clerk's office, was asked by the woman recorder to state her occupation.

*She hesitated, uncertain how to classify herself.

*'What I mean is,' explained the recorder, 'do you have a job or are you just a......'

*'Of course I have a job,' snapped the woman, 'I'm a Mom!'

*'We don't list Mom as an occupation, housewife covers it!'

*I forgot all about her story, until one day I found myseld in the same situation, this time at our own Town Hall. The clerk was obviously a career woman, posied, efficient, and possesed a high sounding title like, 'Official Interrogator' or 'Town Registrar'

*'What is your occupation?' she probed.

*What made me say it? I do not know. The words simply popped out. 'I'm a Research Associate in the field of Child Development and Human Relations.'

*The Clerk paused, ball point pen frozen in midair and looked up as though she had not heard right.

*I repeated the title slowly, emphasizing the most important words. Then I stared with wonder as my pronouncement was written, in bold, black ink on the official questionnaire.

*'Might I ask?', said the clerk with new interest, 'just what you do in your field?'

*Cooly, without any trace of fluster in my voice, I heard myself simply reply, 'I have a continuing program of research (what mother doesn't) in the labratory and in the field (normally I would have said indoors and out). I'm working for my Masters (first the Lord and then the whole family), and already have four credits (all daughters). Of course, the job is one of the most demanding in the humanities (any mother care to disagree?), and I often work 14 hours a day (24 is more like it). But, the job is more challenging than most run of the mill careers, and the rewards are more of a satisfaction, rather than just money.

*There was an increasing note of respect in the clerks voice as she completed the form, stood up, and personally ushered me to the door.

*As I drove into our driveway, buoyed up by my glamourous new career, I was greeted by my lab assistants, ages 13, 7 and 3. Upstairs I could hear our new experimental model (a 6month old baby) in the child development program, testing out a new vocal pattern, I felt I had scored a beat on bureaucracy, and I had gone on the official records as someone more distinguished and indispensable to mankind than, 'JUST ANOTHER MOM!'

*Motherhood, what a glorious career!


*This is something that really rings true to me, especially being a stay at home Mom (not so much now, as I seem to be working more and more hours all the time, but those hours are in the evenings and weekends, as I will never give up my time with the girls during the day), but there are so many times when people ask what I do, and I feel the need to immediately follow up telling them that I stay at home, with telling them of my actual 'job!' But, what is so wrong with just being a Mom!? NOTHING!! Even on these days when I am so mentally and physically exhausted, and I feel like I am about to lose it, there is no place I would rather be, there is no job I would rather have. I remember when Abby was just a few days old and I was sitting in her room with her in the middle of the night (might have been early morning by then-haha), rocking her and dirfiting in and out of sleep myself in the glider (I can't tell you how many miles I have logged rocking in that glider or how many hours I have slept in it), but I remember thinking, 'Wow, my Mom did this with me all those years ago!' All that work, all that time, all that parenting and at that moment I got it and wanted to make sure that she knew that at that very moment, every hour, tear, hug, lecture, etc was ALL worth it! I immediately called her the next day to tell her 'Thanks!' So, while it may be 25 years before I ever get a 'Thank You, Mom' that is said with 100% truth, meaning and love, that's okay...I will happily continue to log my own hours in the glamourous career of Motherhood. I'm quite content being Just a Mom! :)...Even on the toughest of days!