Hey pretty mama!
Yes, you.
With the messy hair and sweatpants and make up free face.
The baby food stains on your shirt and the breakfast crumbs on your floor.
With the toddler clinging to your legs and the laundry piles in the corner.
The split ends and the unkept nails because you don’t have time to take care of yourself.
With the dreams in your heart and the questions in your soul.
You are lovely.
You are full of purpose.
You are doing an amazing job.
I met a new friend last weekend and in the middle of our conversation, she asked me what I did. Like most times when I get asked this question, I felt myself want to shrivel back in a small measure of almost-like-embarrassment…and I started in to tell her that, “Oh, I’m just a…” And then I caught myself…and changed my words. “I mean, I’m a mom…not JUST a mom.” She was a kind soul and immediately affirmed this sentiment, that being a mom is a high calling and full of the greatest purpose.
I’ve been mulling over this all week now. And I realize that I’ve let our culture and the expectations that it places on women to give me that sense of almost-like-embarrassment when someone asks me what I do and all that I have to say is that I’m a mother. WHAT IS THAT?! That makes me a little ticked off, to be honest here, people.
Where has our world taken us to even ever remotely feel that being a mother isn’t enough? Why do we all fight the feeling that we always need to do more and be more? I mean, I fight that feeling and I’m almost positive that you do too. How did we get to the place where the heart of mothering that GOD HIMSELF has placed within us just isn’t enough for our world? I see woman and friends all around me fighting those expectations, fighting a kind of guilt that their life just isn’t enough. I see our world that has devalued the heart of mothering and taken it outside of our homes and family and made us believe that our true value and contribution to society is out there. How could we come to believe that what we do in the every day as we love and serve and care for our children, homes, and families isn’t of value? That it isn’t enough?
I’m talking to myself here, dears. I mean, I love being a wife and a mother. It’s what I’ve always wanted to do with my life, and here I am, living in the middle of that dream. But yet I feel it. I feel that expectation from the world that I need to “do more” with my life. Like I need to run a business or write a book or start a movement or DO SOMETHING AMAZING.
And my heart breaks that I’ve somehow come to believe that what I do in my home and in the lives of the ones that I love just isn’t enough.
If you are a mom and run a business or work at an office or pull shifts at a hospital or whatever else, that’s amazing and I applaud you! And if you are a mom that stays at home and changes a million diapers and prepares a thousand meals and reads a hundred stories, that is also AMAZING and I applaud you! What you do in those small, mundane, endless moments really do matter…you are creating something amazing right there in your own home, sweet mamas.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:: I am a mother and it is enough.
What about you: do you feel that pull from the world to be more/do more than JUST be a mother?
I’d love to hear your thoughts!
This is so beautifully written, Alicia! I just had a conversation with a customer at work today who affirmed me in my decision to be a stay-at-home mama, speaking from her own experiences. It was so nice to hear! I don’t think we encourage all of the mothers around us often enough. It’s a high calling although we often don’t view it that way. Blessings to you also as you care for your little sunshine!
Actually I was a mother that worked outside the home and I had the tugging and pulling that I should be home raising my children I wish I had had that opportunity. I’m more than sure you’re doing a wonderful job and there is your job caring for your family and it’s a full-time job so never be ashamed.
Aww thanks for this post. Needed it, I get such low self esteem being a stay at home mom.
Thanks for sharing!! I finally had some time to catch up on a little blog-reading, and this was great. I have been mulling this very topic over in my head a LOT lately. My struggle is that even though I am a ‘stay-at-home-mom’ I feel like everyone else is setting a new standard for ‘stay-at-home-moms’ these days. It’s no longer enough to “just” take care of your home and family. You need to join an MLM company, be a professional blogger, brand representative, write a book, run a podcast, sell on Etsy and a 1,000 more things!! And it just totally overwhelms me after a while. I know it is a lie, but it can be all-consuming if I let it. So thanks again for this reminder that being a mom CAN be enough. Now please do a follow-up post sometime with tips and advice on how you manage to maintain this attitude, because I think I forget it every day. :p Blessings to you in your motherhood!!
Thank you to you both. Wow and wow. Need constant reminders… I just have one little, and she is big work – but I still absorb the message that I should be doing more and have been mulling over MLM opps and all the things recently. …. THANKS.