Recently my friend (and amazing writer/human) Nicole Unice shared with us a blog she had posted on her own amazing blog here on
This is Nicole. You should read her stuff–she’s the bomb (my opinion but also a verifiable fact.)
Richmondmom.com called Letter to Stay at Home Moms.
When she sent us the post it immediately resonated with me although I had no idea how many thousands of moms all over the country would read it, many of them commenting as well. As of today, 300 folks shared it on Facebook, which is like being given a gigantic gold star from the internets.
Although a couple of commenters wondered if she was being truthful and/or condenscending, most were thrilled at the sheer appreciation Nicole expressed at what is often a job with few extrinsic rewards.
Being a gal who truly tries to keep a fair and balanced viewpoint, I didn’t want to leave out all the working moms who may have been reading Nicole’s post feeling a little put out that they weren’t recognized in her eloquent thank you note to the at-home mama contingent.
So, here goes:
If you’re reading this and you’re a working mom (full-time, part-time, sometime), I appreciate you. I appreciate the fact that you have to deal with cranky customers, demanding managers, and annoying “reply all” emails, many of them including requests to be “removed from this email list.”
I appreciate that you may get dolled up to hang out with people all week in order to bring home the bacon when you may just feel like cuddling with your cuties in front of cartoons or playing in the park. (And by “dolled up” I mean in a really nice dress with spit-up and/or snot on one or more sleeves.)
It may not be uncommon for you to emerge from your workplace after eight hours realizing that the large orb in the sky is actually the sun and not the fluorescent light bulbs that have surrounded you as you work.
You have to switch gears quickly, going from being slave to the workplace to slave to your family often without catching a breath in-between, in high heels and while typing emails on your iPhone.
You beg, borrow, and steal time when you can to attend school functions and dutifully send in treasure-box treats, notes of thanks to the teacher, and order forms for crap the PTO swindled encouraged your kids into selling. I realize that the latter resulted in you taking said solicitation into the workplace, perhaps resulting further in annoyed sighs of passers-by because, they too hate having to sell stuff at work.
A lady once told me that “Working Mother Magazine was the worst thing that ever happened to the American Family” and I don’t know about that, but having two parents working outside the home has it’s own set of challenges as does living on one income in many cases.
I get that you are often the cheerleader for overwhelmed, overworked colleagues when you often need your own support group, and I’m happy to be a member of this group to get you through. Warning: Our meetings may require as much wine as they do whine.
*All moms are working moms, some just work for folks other than their bosses, and for paychecks instead of kisses.
