Saturday, October 15, 2005
Last week on Oprah, Uma Thurman was the guest and the topic of working vs. stay-at-home moms came up. I have been stewing over a comment a "working" mother said to the camera. She said "not everyone has the luxury of staying at home" and this phrase has been bothering me all week. Maybe it was how she said it, her tone of voice...but my thought was..."What's so luxurious about staying at home?" At the end of the segment they interviewed a "stay-at-home" mom and she said when her friends complain about not being able to be at home she replies that sometimes she wishes she could "go to work." This comment I could relate to because it's true that when you stay home you're always at work. Being home with your child means you create more housework for yourself: more dishes, more crumbs on the kitchen floor and rug, more food preparation, more dust from just being in your own home all day, and I'm sure the list could go on...
So staying at home means you're working, you're just not having the luxury of getting out of the house and in a way escaping from the challenges of being with your own child/ren.
Now I do have a home-based business. No, it doesn't provide me health benefits or anywhere near the salary I had as a full-time teacher (at least not yet), but it still is work. However, even if I didn't have my Shaklee business I'd still consider myself a "working" mom and not a woman living in luxury as the Oprah working mom suggested. It interesting how people interpret their own situations differently.
Most of the time I think Oprah does shows about how great stay-at-home moms are and how it's "the hardest job in the world," but Uma Thurman, a working mom, was showing the other side to some degree. I do agree with Oprah's conclusion that at least we, as women, now have the choice to stay home or go to a job whereas before it was automatically assumed we'd stay home. Women need to feel comfortable with whatever choice they make and not try to say one place/role is better than another. However, I think part of human nature means we'll never be totally satisfied with our choices, but hopefully we'll be grateful for choices in general.
So staying at home means you're working, you're just not having the luxury of getting out of the house and in a way escaping from the challenges of being with your own child/ren.
Now I do have a home-based business. No, it doesn't provide me health benefits or anywhere near the salary I had as a full-time teacher (at least not yet), but it still is work. However, even if I didn't have my Shaklee business I'd still consider myself a "working" mom and not a woman living in luxury as the Oprah working mom suggested. It interesting how people interpret their own situations differently.
Most of the time I think Oprah does shows about how great stay-at-home moms are and how it's "the hardest job in the world," but Uma Thurman, a working mom, was showing the other side to some degree. I do agree with Oprah's conclusion that at least we, as women, now have the choice to stay home or go to a job whereas before it was automatically assumed we'd stay home. Women need to feel comfortable with whatever choice they make and not try to say one place/role is better than another. However, I think part of human nature means we'll never be totally satisfied with our choices, but hopefully we'll be grateful for choices in general.
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I dont' call myself a stay at home mom if someone asks, I say I am a "domestic engineer" People like it! thanks for the reflection of the show. Maybe Oprah needs to have domestic engineers as her guests for the next Oprah's favorites at Christmas!
# posted by 
: 12:12 PM
: 12:12 PM
It's time to take charge of your future and independence by having your own business!
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# posted by : 8:54 AM
: 8:54 AM<< Home
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