If you have kids, it is probably one of the first questions people ask, “Are you a stay-at-home mom, or do you work outside the home?” We are finally getting to a point in life where we define both stay-at-home moms and full-time working moms as moms who work, just in different ways.
The truth is all moms work in some capacity.
However, there is a new type of mom that has been coming up more, but I don’t know how to define this mom. This mom doesn’t have a label, it is the mom that does both – the mom who is employed and stays at home with her kids. What do we call those moms?
With the growing popularity of work-from-home jobs and the expensive nature of housing, groceries, and childcare prices, I find more and more moms are trying to both be employed and stay at home with their kids. I am part of this group, but I find it difficult to define to others. They ask, “Do you stay at home?” and I answer “Yes, but…” and then I follow up with an explanation about how I teach college courses online as well. How do I describe it?
I haven’t found an eloquent label yet, an employed stay-at-home mom, perhaps? We need a description for this type of mom and to recognize this group since it is becoming more popular. Moms who work from home so they can watch their kids, too, or moms who work third shift so they can stay with their kids during the day, or moms like me, who do work during quiet times during the day or at night after the kids go to sleep. These moms do both – work a job part-time, sometimes even full-time, and stay at home with the kids.
This is not to say that moms who are employed and stay at home with their kids have it harder than other moms, because that is not true. It is all hard, being a stay-at-home mom is hard, being a full-time or part-time working mom is hard, and working full-time or part-time while at home with your kids is hard.
If there is one thing us moms should agree on, it is that being a mom in any capacity can be hard.
I have been a full-time working mom and I know the challenges of not having enough time with your kids or time to get things done. I also know how being a stay-at-home mom can feel lonely and be overwhelming when you are a primary caregiver. Now, I am a mom who works from home but also stays at home with my kids, part of both groups of moms, but not fully in one or the other. This works for our family, and I have found a good balance between the two (most days), but we have our days where the housework has to wait because I have a lot of papers to grade or days I stay up late working because I couldn’t do much during the day if the kids kept me busy.
So, to the stay-at-home mom who sometimes feels alone and isolated even though you love your kids, I see you. To the full-time working mom who feels guilty about missing out on time with her kids so she can pay the bills, I see you. And to the moms like myself who do both, who don’t fully fit in the other two groups, the moms who work from home and stay at home with your kids, I see you, too. And as this type of mom grows in popularity, maybe we will find a way to describe it!
We are all just doing what is best for our own family and making the best choices that we can for our kids. So, to all the moms out there working hard in any capacity to do the best they can for their family, I see you!
