6 Delightful Reasons Stay-At-Home Moms Have The Greatest Job In The World

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Stay-at-home moms are INCREDIBLE! We have the greatest job in the entire world, minus perhaps ice cream tester. By the end of this article, you will be approximately 1,000,000% THRILLED that you are a stay-at-home mom!

Now, if my 20-year-old self heard me say that, she’d probably fall over.

While I don’t know if I would have chosen to be a stay-at-home mom at a younger age, I couldn’t imagine doing anything else at the moment. It’s funny how life changes a person. If you’re thinking about whether or not you should join the ranks of 1,000’s of other stay-at-home moms, I’ll have you convinced by the end of this article that stay-at-home moms have the greatest job you could ever have in your life.

Here’s what you’ll find in this guide for stay-at-home moms:

The Great Homemaker Exodus
6 Reasons Stay-At-Home Moms Have The Greatest Job In The World
Celebration Of Stay-At-Home Moms

The Great Homemaker Exodus

Is it just me, or does it seem as though homemaking is no longer considered a valid “career” for a mom?

In my experience, it is far more rare to meet fellow mamas who have chosen to stay home with their babies for the long-term. Of course every mama has to choose what works for them, but it’s definitely interesting to learn how things have changed through the decades. The days of June Cleaver are long gone.

I get asked the standard questions by other moms who’ve chosen to go back to work.

“How do you keep your sanity?”

“Don’t you want to do more with your life than just being a mom?”

“What do you do all day with your kid?”

To be honest with you, there are days I kind of do wish I had somewhere else I got to go during the day and have a break from the never ending mental and physical pull of being a stay-at-home mom. It’s not easy. I get zero breaks and usually only have nap time to get anything done.

In case you didn’t know, stay-at-home moms have the work equivalent of 2.5 jobs. Read more about that in this NYPost article.

At the same time, I regret nothing and am so thankful I actually have the privilege of staying at home with my little guy. In today’s economy, it’s hard to survive on just one income, but we have made sacrifices that enable us to make it on my husband’s income alone. If you cut corners, you might be able to swing it.

I love being a stay-at-home mom. In fact, I adore it. It’s the best choice for me, and I can talk all day about the magic of being home with my favorite little human.

6 Reasons Stay-At-Home Moms Have The Greatest Job In The World

We Literally Create A Home For A New Human

Stay-at-home moms are so powerful. We create a home.

Think about that. You are cultivating the environment your child will spend their first 18 years. Incredible.

Of course, mamas who don’t stay home also create a home, but there’s just something so undeniably special about being home all day with your littles and cultivating and creating HOME for them.

When I was young, my mother had to work.

Every day, she took me to my grandmother’s house. I loved my grandmother, but there were many days I cried and cried because I just wanted to be at home with my mommy.

When I think about my little girl self, I know I’ve made the right choice to make myself available to my baby boy every day. It’s my honor to cultivate a home for him and give him all-day access to the most influential person in his life: mama.

Most of my childhood memories are with my grandmother. While there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, I am a bit heartbroken that I didn’t have more time with my mom when I was young.

By staying at home with my son, I have the power to create beauty, magic, and whimsy every day with him. What an incredible honor! I love creating a home for my little family.

We Get To Play A Heck Of A Lot

My son wants to play. All. Day. Long. Play is his job. It’s how he learns and interacts with the world. Therefore, play is now my most important job, too.

Playing all day isn’t too shabby. Granted, it does mean that I don’t get so much done in terms of housework, but play is much more fun than housework anyway. Besides, the housework waits for me, and I’ve made peace with the fact that our home won’t be 100% pristine most of the time.

That’s ok.

Play is important right now, and I’m all in. If you’re struggling to come up with fun ways to play with your littles, I’ll be writing some play guides for stay-at-home moms. I know it’s difficult to come up with fresh ideas, so I got you covered!

We Bank Memories That Will Last A Lifetime

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I imagine my 80-year-old self, sitting on a rocking chair, sipping a tea, and going through all my beautiful mama memories. Having a brain (and phone) full of moments and clips from my motherhood journey will surely add a massive amount of joy to my life.

Even now, at less than 2 years into this wild journey, I sometimes sit and reflect on the previous 2 years.

I have an enormous bank of moments to pull from: contact napping my nugget for 7 months, bouncing him while he sat snuggled in the carrier, walking for miles every day just so he’d nap (yes, I did that), and on and on and on. It’s amazing to me that most of the memories I currently adore felt so hard in the moment.

Yet, today, I look back on those stretching days and carry incredible gratitude that I gave it my all.

There are so many narratives on social media warning us to soak in each moment because it all passes so quickly, and we’ll be heartbroken when our baby is grown and independent. I really don’t like that message because it feels incredibly depressing.

So I’m flipping the narrative.

Instead of grieving as each moment passes, I choose to celebrate those moments and pack them away in my brain so I have more mental pictures and memories to pull from. Instead of grief, I choose gratitude that I’m in the moment.

We Get To Be Our Kid’s Greatest Influence

I am my baby’s greatest influence. He’s always watching me, imitating me, and trying to recreate what I do.

While it is a massive responsibility to be the #1 influence in someone’s life, it’s also an honor.

Maybe I’m paranoid, but I don’t really trust anyone else to instill in my little one good morals and life values. I take my motherhood role very seriously and know the responsibility to mold my little one into a healthy adult lies predominantly with me. Of course, others are involved in the process, but I am the main player.

I taught preschool in Beijing for about 6 years, and many mothers told me they wanted their little ones to be like me. They wanted them to be extroverted and very social. However, when I asked those parents what they were like with their babes at home, they always said they were quiet and reserved.

Well, I’m sorry, but most children are going to follow after their parents’ influence, no matter how much time they spend with me.

I find it really humbling that I get to the be main architect of my baby’s life foundation, and I don’t like the idea of handing off that job to someone else who possibly holds differing morals and life values. No thanks.

We Have A Front Row Seat To Our Child’s Life

As a stay-at-home mom, I get a front row seat to my child’s growth and development.

I don’t miss any milestones, new words, cute behaviors, etc. For me, that’s worth making the sacrifice to stay at home with my little guy. I see it all. I soak in all of the moments. For the most part, nothing happens that I don’t get to be a part of.

I know the pull to go out and work is strong for many of us. It can give us a sense of success and accomplishment, at least as defined by society.

However, the biological pull to be close to my baby is undeniable.

I currently have a friend who is caught in the struggle between making the choice to either continue being a stay-at-home mom or go back into the work force. She is really struggling with the fact that she might miss out on some of the big moments of her child’s life. That’s such a valid struggle.

Here’s the way I look at it: my baby is little for such a short time, so staying home with him until he goes to kindergarten (or even longer if I homeschool) will never be something I regret. When I get older, I know that I will never look back on my baby’s early years and think, “Gosh, I wish I would have spent less time with him.”

Nope. I’m never ever ever going to have that thought. Rather, I will be so so grateful that I put in the time, made the personal sacrifice, and gave as much of myself as possible to the most important human in my life. He’s worth it, and so am I.

We Get A Second Chance At Childhood

Being a stay-at-home mom has brought up so many of my own childhood memories and experiences.

Sadly, not all of those memories and experiences are positive.

In the last couple of years, I’ve actually felt a lot of pain and grief because of the shortcomings I now see in my own childhood. While I certainly cannot go back and change anything, having the time and space to really be present with my own boy has actually brought a certain level of healing to my little girl heart.

My parents did the best they could with the knowledge and experience they had. They gave what they could, and I know that.

I want better for my boy. Both of my parents worked hard because they had to, and that’s totally understandable.

Nonetheless, when I was small, I was not able to rationalize the fact that my parents loved me, and I would be ok when they dropped me off at my grandmother’s home every weekday. My little girl heart just wanted her mommy.

I remember crying every morning when I got to my grandmothers, not because I didn’t love her but because I just wanted mommy.

As weird as it might sound, staying home with my boy and giving him what I didn’t get when I was small has done a great deal for my heart. I don’t know why or how, but it’s done something, brought some sort of comfort to my heart.

Each day, I’m able to do things with him that I wish my own mother would have had the capacity to do with me when I was young. She was just so exhausted from work.

That’s not her fault, but it definitely impacted me. For that reason, I’m all in for this journey. I have a second chance at childhood, and I’m soaking it all in.

Celebration Of Stay-At-Home Moms

To wrap this article up with a cute bow and confetti, I celebrate you today, mama. As a stay-at-home mom, you are giving your little ones a great gift that will impact them through adulthood.

Celebrate yourself today. Hug your babies close. Soak in the snuggles and the slow moments. The sacrifice you’ve made to be fully present with your babies will pay off more than you can imagine.

In the future, when the house is quiet and clean, you will be so thankful you gave so much time to your children.

No regrets.

Well done, mama. I’m proud of you.

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