My Current Occupation

When I was setting up the profile for my blog, it asked what industry I worked in. I couldn't decide, so I tried to put all of the descriptions that apply to what I do here in our home every day. It took too much space. They are the following: accounting, agriculture, automotive, banking, education, food service, housekeeping, law enforcement, nursing, real estate, religion science, sports/recreation, transportation, etc. etc. I once saw the statistic of what a stay-at-home-mom should make annually. It was close to $120,000, when you add all the previous job descriptions together and tack on the overtime (it's the overtime that gets to me). The problem I have found, is that I get so busy doing all of those things, that I forget the most important job description, that of simply being a mom.

Air recently had a professor that suggested to his students, the only reason women did not work outside of the home is because they had no choice. Air pointed out to him, and the rest of the class, that a great number of women, including his wife, choose to give up careers is other fields to stay at home. A while back, as we were driving in Houston, past the world renowned M.D. Anderson Cancer Treatment Center, I thought of all the nurses in there wearing their scrubs and for a split second I thought how nice that would be to be important and appreciated. Nursing is a noble profession, even with that, I looked around at my kids and knew that what I am doing at this point in my life is far more important. Nursing is admirable, but I figure I have the rest of my life to save the world. Right now, I have the opportunity to work on saving my family. It has been 8 years since I have worked full time as a nurse. I have kept my license active, because I never know if I'll ever need to use it. Some women absolutely have no choice, they have to support their family. I have a choice and that is why I shouldn't take the opportunity for granted.

One of my favorite children's books is "Are you my Mother?" by P.D. Eastman. It is a story about a baby bird looking for his mother. He asks a cow, hen, dog if they are his mother. When he finally finds her he says "you are not a cow, you are not a hen, you are not dog, you are a bird, and you are my mother." So, I'm not all of the occupations that I listed, I'm much more, because I chose to be a mother. Sometimes I need to be reminded of that.