Melinda
Mommy to
The Gift 10/01/05
Elfgirl 5/25/07
Sparky 6/27/09
"Sunset to Twilight, Our Family's Journey with Alzheimer's." http://maestramommi.blogspot.com/
I'm a full time SAHM and couldn't disagree more! True that our lives are never the same anymore with children around us, but at the same time I felt that with me being a SAHM I've learned a lot from my kids. They taught me to be more passionate, love unconditionally, and be grateful for life and I'm definitely so very grateful to be able to a SAHM. They grow up too fast and I know I'm gonna miss all these time I'm spending with them now. We all have a choice and just because being a SAHM doesn't mean you can't enjoy life anymore.
I try to keep to things I don't feel have been discussed much in this thread, the impact on the marriage and the volunteer work.
I have seen marriages change IRL and through posts of the BBB members over the years. I've been the person more at home while my DH worked more, and now I'm the bread winner. More than once I thought, "I make 4x more than you, I come home exhausted, the least you can do is dig into that pile of laundry!" Do I feel guilty for thinking it, heck yeah. But I've learned over the years to let it wash over me and move onto the next thing. My DH get's a little defensive about money and earning at times also, and more than once he's told me to I wasn't home so don't comment on how he fed the kids,etc. I want to stress, we have a GREAT marriage. Most couples I know comment on the strength and equality of our partnership. Trust me, if we have these thoughts, your spouse does also. Maybe some people want a more traditional marriage roles, but they do come with baggage, as everything does.
Yes, and volunteer work sucks 50% of the time as far as I can tell from the stuff I've seen. I am constantly amazed at how much volunteers make work for themselves. Some of it is I am very results oriented, but a lot of times when I see things set up and organized I think, "That could be done with less people and less effort if you didn't have to include everyone." I have yet to have a volunteer experience in a school in 7 years of schooling that would have been substantially missed if I had not come. It might be a product of being in a place where there are too many people trying to volunteer for two few tasks, like slots in a classroom. I'm sure if I lived in a different area my experience would be different, but no, I don't feel that the volunteer work I do has as much impact as my work does or volunteer work I do through my job. Some of it is the nature of my vocation, but there is a certain amount of busy work that goes with volunteering that is only so rewarding. We have plenty of volunteers at my work place, usually I feel that the the value they offer the organization is a mixed bag.
So those two things she brought up intrigued me, because I haven't seen them talked about as much.