The Judgement of a Mother

Since my last blog post, I did make the decision to be a full time stay-at-home ranch wife. Little did I know that this decision would receive so much praise and also disappointment from others. Some have greeted me with "congratulations" and some have given me the side eye and a look of dismay they were unable to hide on their face. Some say staying home makes me "lazy" or that "I"m not contributing to society." Others say that "A mother should be the one to stay home and raise her children." The crazy part is... 99% of these comments were made by other mothers. I'm now having to learn how to roll the rude comments of others off my shoulders and stand firm with my decision to stay home with my child. Before I became a mom, I remember often seeing a mother in the store or looking at her life and saying "I will not be that kind of mom" or "I will not be doing that with my child." I also said "I will not quite my job and stay home." But motherhood changes you, and when you're deep in the trenches of it, you do what you can to survive. I struggled juggling a baby, a full time job, and being a ranch wife and knew right away when I went back to work it wasn't sustainable for me or my family. I quickly realized that to have a happy family, that I needed to be happy too. Now I certainly praise the women who have juggled all three, I know these women and I admire their strength; but that lifestyle just wasn't for me. I'm learning that everyone's motherhood journey looks different and that is 100% OKAY. As long as our children grow up happy and loved, does anything else matter? I'd argue not. So do what's best for you and your family and ignore the nay-sayers, Negative Nancys and Karens of the world. Next time you want to judge another mother, fight the urge and instead give her a pat on the back and let her know what a wonderful job she is doing. You don't know her story and you don't know her why

/SCS/