In Praise of Stay-at-Home Moms

Finally time to catch up on my book reviews!  I actually read this book the first week of March and am just finally sitting down to post my review.  I first heard about this book shortly after it was released in early 2009.  Actually, it was released in April of 2009, the first month that I officially began staying at home with Matthew (post-maternity leave).  I happened to see Dr. Laura interview with Meredith Vieira and Katie Couric.  I found it very impressive that Dr. Laura was able to hold her own during interviews with two very successful and well-known working women.  Note: Dr. Laura was a SAHM, and also a working mom, but she worked at night after her son was in bed.  Reading her book, I think she may have survived on NO sleep before her son was in school!

I would call this book more of a collection of Dr. Laura's thoughts, as well as the thoughts of her listeners.  They are thoughts of encouragement and serve as a reminder that being a stay-at-home-mom is something to be proud of. Sometimes I think that people view SAHMs' as living the "easy" life.  When I meet someone new and we get to talking "work" and the "what do you do?" question arises, I find myself saying "I stay at home with my son, but I... teach skin care for Mary Kay/kept my CPA license active and do taxes/insert anything to be "proud" of here".  Like I needed to justify my decision or be something more important.

What I loved about this book is that Dr. Laura reminds us that we are so blessed to have the opportunity to be at home and raise our children and make our home a release.  She reminds us that we are lucky to have men that support us in that role, and to remind us how important it is that we make our man's life easier.  I personally love that when Jon gets home at night he can totally focus his energy on Matthew.  Though, many times I feel like he gets more done around the house than I ever do (like... he can have this place picked up and clean in an hour, it takes me all day)!

It was Dr. Laura's intent to teach SAHMs to (taken from the inside flap of the book):

• hold your head high and deal with naysayers;
• see the benefits of being home not only for your children but also for your marriage;
• understand the changes you see in yourself;
• realize that the sacrifices you endure now will make for lasting bonds and a stronger family, in addition to a more cohesive community.

I know that there are so many families out there where the mom has to work for the family to survive and I 100% respect that.  Have we made sacrifices for me to give up my income? No.  No sacrifices. I wouldn't trade raising my babies for anything!  Changes? Yes.  Big changes, and have learned to live without some of the "little luxuries" (but, that's where my LOVE for Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University comes in to play).  I stand firm in saying that if my family needed me to work outside of the home, before our children are school age, in order to make sure food was on the table, a roof was over our head, and clothes were on our backs I'd be out that door at the crack of dawn every morning to bring in the necessary income.  I believe God has truly blessed our family, and loved the encouragement of this book. I would recommend this as a read to all mommies out there!