My SAHM Era

I truly never planned to be a “Stay. At. Home. Mom.” (SAHM). In fact, I often shook my head at the thought of that. The main reason being because we were so strapped financially (part of the double sided coin of living in Paradise). Additionally, there is a certain stigma when it comes to womanhood and motherhood, especially here in America. American women fought long and hard for the right to make wages. Giving that up on account of children is not easy. Motherhood is not elevated or really even celebrated in our world today, making the idea of staying at home with our little ones slightly looked down upon.

This process of becoming a SAHM has been quite the growing journey for me. I have had to push through ideologies and unrealistic standards I had set up for myself. Fortunately, life and circumstantial changes played a big role in this paradigm shift. I’ve seen both sides of the coin now, having previously been a working mom. I’m not going to lie though, it is still a daily adjustment for me to live out this newfound role. As much as I love it, I also really loved working. However, this season of life has continuously revealed to me the need to embrace the SAHM lifestyle. It truly is a lifestyle, a paradigm shift, an adventure, and an intentional act of slowing down. Sure, you can hustle your way through each day, but so much is missed and so much unnecessary stress is accrued when you forgo embracing the simplicity and slowed down pace that motherhood beckons.

Which stage of motherhood are you in? Are you a working mom like I was, a SAHM, or a little mixture of both? I have been all three at various stages over the past four years of my motherhood journey. I would love to hear what stage of your journey you are in and what your why is. It’s tough AF, but it is so worth it. I once heard that these years that our children are little feel like an eternity, but that in a blink of an eye they become grown. This constantly reminds me that we don’t want to miss it or look back wondering why we spent so much time baring through it rather than fully engaging in it and embracing it. As Janet Lansbury says at the end of every episode on her famous podcast Unruffled . . .

“We can do this.”