[Reprinted
from There’s No Place Like Home book and written many years ago]
As I was straddling a rafter on my parents’ barn addition while helping
Jon hammer the tin roofing in place (and having the time of my life, I
might add), I started thinking of all the fun I enjoy as a wife and
mother. There are never any dull moments because my daily activities are
so diversified that life at home is truly an adventure!
Then I
reflected on a conversation I had with my neighbor. Months after my
neighbor’s second child was born, I noticed that she was still home
each day. Happy that she would stay home with her children now, I
expressed my hearty enthusiasm. Unfortunately, she was just home on
leave and would soon be returning to work because as she frankly
explained, “I could never stay at home; I’d be terribly bored.” I was so
sad then for her and her children, but now in retrospect, I laugh out
loud.
My job description, and that of all stay-at-home moms,
could read as follows: child caretaker, teacher, executive director,
management expert, decorator, psychologist, counselor, nutritionist,
accountant, doctor, nurse, pharmacist, dentist (we pull out teeth),
chef, fashion designer (thank God it is we who select our children’s
clothes and dress them and not our husbands), barber (haircuts),
hairdresser, tailor, maid, operator, chauffeur, shoe salon attendant
(constantly putting on our children’s shoes), photographer (our kids
will look back and say, “Where was mom during my childhood? She’s never
in any of the pictures”), plumber (the first time Jedidiah went potty by
himself he used half the roll of toilet paper to wipe himself so …),
painter, gardener, entertainer, activity coordinator (would the family
go anywhere if we didn’t schedule outings?), comedian, missionary, opera
star (you know how I love to sing), dancer (and dance), librarian,
architect (Lego and block expert), artist, actor (farmer, cowboy, clown,
customer, airplane, train, dog, elephant …), mechanic (okay, so this is
stretching it a bit but I did fill the radiator with water, charged a
battery, and told the certified mechanic that I thought the lifters were
causing the racket).
After tabulating all my titles and
singing my version of “And I’m a woooman—da dadada da,” I had to laugh
because I remembered that my neighbor is a secretary who sits at a desk
all day. Who was she kidding? Absolutely no one. The Deceiver kidded
her.
So saddened by the thought I almost fell off the
rafter—shoo-wee it was time for me to get back to being a carpenter. I
just love being a wife and mother!!
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