I am a full-time mom

I read something the other day that slightly irritated me. Since I am devoting a blog post to it, it probably irritated me more than just slightly. I have heard moms who are blessed to stay at home with their children complain about people thinking they don't work. I agree, moms who stay at home with children do, in fact, work. Being a mom is a full-time job.

What I read, referred to stay-at-home moms as full-time moms as if to imply that moms who work outside the home are not full-time. We moms who work outside the home, work inside the home full-time as well. We devote as much energy into our children's lives as any other mother. Our time may be limited, but our love for our children has no limits. We may have to send our children to daycare or leave them with a sitter, but we leave our hearts with them. We think about them all the time, worry about their well-being, long for more time with them and wish we could always be the ones to kiss their boo-boos, feed them, lay them down for a nap and play with them. We get tired - bone-tired - and feel like we can't deal with all the pressure at times, but we manage to muster up enough strength for our children to not know that we are exhausted, overwhelmed, or have had a bad day. We are moms...that's our job.

Having to work full-time and leave Addi at daycare bothers me quite a bit. I have cried about it, fussed at Jared about it (though it's totally not his fault...he works very hard!), and have felt guilt-ridden about it quite a bit. However, if I really stop to think about how I have seen the hand of God move in our lives and in our work situations in the last year, I can say without a shadow of doubt that we are where God wants us to be right now. Jared and I pray all the time to be in the center of God's will. Sometimes, God's will is our will, sometimes it is not. For now, God's will in this area is different than mine, but only God knows why He has us where He does. So, I publicly declare to God and to my husband that I am finally willing to accept this and will do my best not to complain. God has allowed undeserving me to be a full-time mom...how can I complain?