Thankful: Parenting Experience

Greetings and Salutations citizens of the blogosphere!

I know that in my last post I promised to write a post each day until Thanksgiving, counting down the days by reflecting on things that I'm thankful for. Well, it just hasn't happened. Life in all it's grandiose busy-ness has, as it's prone to do, gotten in the way. I've been meaning to write, it's just that I've been writing so many other things, that the blog, unfortunately is at the bottom of the to-do list.

For those of you who may be wondering, yes, I am still working on my NaNoWriMo novel. Just last night I passed the 20,000 word mark and I'm still  about 8,000 words behind. Sigh. Oh well. I'll catch up. Eventually.

Anyway...what I'm thankful for...

Today I'm thankful for my job. Of course, I'm thankful for it because it allows me to pay my bills, etc, etc. But I'm mostly thankful for the experiences it's allowing me to have before I have kids of my own.

In today's society of sometimes extreme feminism, the role of a mother is often downplayed and in today's career minded society, being a stay at home mom is often looked down upon, especially by other women. I think that the thought process of a lot of women is, "Women can do and be anything they want to be now days."

 " Why would anyone want to be a stay at home mom?"

Let me exlplain.

I do not consider myself to be a feminist or anything extreme. I have very high expectations for myself and career goals. However, if and when the time ever comes where I am afforded the wonderful privilege to be a mommy, and if my financial status allows, I will leave my job to stay at home with my kids. I have no idea what my future holds or the kind of job that my future spouse will hold, but hopefully it will be something that will be sufficient enough to allow me to stay at home.

But why Rachel you ask. Why?

In the last year I have navigated meltdowns, built 4000 piece lego buildings, gone on too many zoo trips to count, played basketball, gone to doctor's appointments and allergy shots twice a week, broke up sibling fights, read parenting books, gone to swim practices and swim competitions, gone to gymnastics, bandaged scraped knees, dried tears, and soothed hurt feelings, attended class parties, gone to soccer games, school performances, and taught skills like tying shoe laces. I can tell when they've had a rough day at school and when they're just plain tuckered out. I've been told "I hate you", I've been hit, pinched, kicked, and scratched. I've had toy blocks thrown at me. I've also been told, "I love you Rachel", and been smothered with kisses and hugs.

 I have been a part time parent.

I have experienced so many things with these kids and their parents have missed so much.  If I was a parent, I'd be devastated to pass off these experiences to someone else. The sad thing is, though, that I don't think they realize what they're missing. These people are millionaires and they work all the time to maintain that lifestyle. Besides the time when they're getting the kids ready for school in the mornings, they probably spend a total of about 3 hours with their kids before they put them to bed for the night. 3 hours in a 24 hour day. Unspeakably sad.

Now I know that it is a privilege to be able to stay at home with your kids and it's a privilege that many women would love to have but simply cannot afford/ I am in no way knocking the moms who have  to work. I'm just saying that I realize how much working moms miss and in the future, if I can avoid that, hopefully I will.

So, today, I'm thankful for my job, stressful and thankless as it may seem at times. It's afforded me a viewpoint that I may have otherwise never had the opportunity to have.