Job Title

 You know those days when your major accomplishment is keeping the kids alive…and fed…oh, and various diapers/pull-ups changed and potty breaks?! I seem to be having a lot of those recently…way, too, many!

Granted, I have five children, the youngest being nearly 12 months. My husband has been gone for two weeks and will be gone for a week more, so that’s….hard. But still, I want to be able to get more done and feel better about my general parenting/staying-at-home-ishness. It is after all, my job. When filling out certain paperwork, under MY job description, I write HOMEMAKER. That is what I am doing, making a home, maintaining a home and, above all, raising; strong willed, independent, loud, smart, ornery, energetic, caring, not-so-caring, challenging, enthusiastic, hungry, temperamental, emotional, cranky, fun-loving, curious, wide-eyed, sweet(ish), sassy, imaginative, and creative children. I war within myself when I write that title: HOMEMAKER!??...!!  I’m proud that this is my chosen profession and yet, I wonder why I am doing something that is so stinking hard and often times not-at-all satisfying and then I feel a little like “eh”, it’s what I’m doing and sure, why not…then usually, I’ll circle back around to “Yes, that’s right, I MAKE A HOME!!!” I usually only shout that in my head, because no one around me doing their own paperwork challenged me on my life choices so, why should they suffer?!

In a typical job, you might get a raise for doing well, build up vacation days (and use them!!), get useful feedback from your peers or your boss. It’s quite different when you’re a homemaker. If you get feedback from someone who is not your kid, it most often times turns out to be “wow, you’ve got your hands full”, or the not-so-sly disapproving glances at an outburst from one or all of your children. Kid feedback is even more fun with such sweet nuggets of “when I grow up I’m going to have the lion I buy eat you.”    

  A “raise” would be considered FINALLY potty training the kid that was so disinterested just eight months earlier and who stayed for the longest time in the phase where ‘if they were in a pull-up they would just use it like a diaper anyways’, sooooo YAY, no more carrying that size of diaper or asking if they need to go potty every ten minutes only to find that they went 35 seconds ago…I just got a “mommy raise”.  

  Vacation is not even a word I’m familiar with, I’m sure it has something to do with having fun “outside of the home” without a child grafted to my body, but I really don’t know, hopefully I’ll be able experience this before I die.

Compensation, well, I get a bit more touchy when it comes to this subject. My mother, who successfully raised six (not easy) children as a homeschooling(!), homemaker says that it’s all worth it in the end. She touts the relationships she has with us and the enjoyment of our children as her reward. I guess I’m not so much of a saint, because, I would love to see an advancement check for all my labor. Now, I’m not so incredibly calloused and horrid that I don’t see those little moments of joys and laughter for what they are, success at “Homemaking”. But, a little appreciation (vocalized) from my children or applause when I walk in the door with an armful of groceries, or even $1,673,291 in hard cold cash (I’ve done a little math…), would go a long way with me.

Most of the time I’m defiantly proud of my JOB, it’s hard, I don’t always like it, but, I feel very strongly that it is the most important thing I will do with my life. I want to do it well, I want my kids to be happy, fulfilled and loved…it’s my JOB!