It’s my personal feeling that stay-at-home moms don’t get nearly enough credit. All I hear about is moms who manage to balance having kids with a successful career and how much of an achievement it is. Don’t get me wrong, women who are able to do this are great in their own right and certainly deserve recognition, but so do moms who stay at home with their kids. I go to a very liberal school and over the last four years I’ve heard a lot of negative things implied about moms who stay home.
Maybe no one comes right out and says it, but many of the “feminists” who go to my school make it seem like it’s a bad thing that some moms want to stay with their kids. I put that in quotes because the very liberal branch of feminism on my campus seemingly translates to “women aren’t real feminists unless they act like men.“ Now, I absolutely consider myself to be a feminist, but I don’t think that means all women need to have careers in business or politics to have successful and enriching lives.
In today’s society, stay-at-home moms are oftentimes perceived as somehow lesser than moms who work, and it’s a misconception that needs to stop. My mom raised my sister and me and stayed at home with us until we went to kindergarten. I can say from personal experience that I had absolutely the best childhood of just about anyone I know. My mom was constantly planning activities for us, taking us on tours, having our friends over for play-dates, and overall was just a constant presence of love and support and nurture. When I look back on my childhood I really can’t imagine how it would have been without my mom there taking care of me and loving me, day in and day out.
I’m not saying that everyone who has children should stay at home with their children, because it’s obviously not for everyone. And if you’re involved in a successful career when you become pregnant, it must be an extremely tough decision to decide whether or not to give that up. Having never been in that position, I really don’t even know what the right choice would be.
But the fact remains that women who stay at home with their children deserve equal respect as women who do not, because being a fulltime mom is a job all of its own. It’s a different kind of job, sure, but it’s no less challenging than leaving to go to work in an office everyday. So if you think that being a feminist means never leaving your career for your children, realize that true feminism accepts all women as amazing—and equal—no matter what choices they make.
