Staying Home IS The Job

This week onmamamia Mia wondered why there can be so much animosity between SAHM's and payroll mums.

I don't have the answer. I just know I'm not immune to this. I have judged and I have been judged. Since my eldest princess was born I have had various stints of working part time, full time, in an office, from home and now for the last 18 months I have been a SAHM. I find i get WAY more raised eyebrows about staying home than i did about working.

So having seen a little bit from all sides here is the thing that bugs me the most about the whole thing. Unpaid work is simply not treated as a job. If I worked as a Nanny for three kids under five, lived and travelled with the family, organized their lives and was on call at night, that would be a career. But when I do exactly the same thing for my own family that's, well, I don't know what it is, but it is not usually called work or a job. We wonder what we should put in the "gap" in our resumes for the periods of time we spend home with our families.

Look, I don't need you to tell me it's the hardest job in the world. I bet there are harder jobs, like flying space shuttles, doing surgery in frontline conditions or PR for Lindsay Lohan. But it is a job.

Do I get bored "at home"? Of course I do. Would I get bored at work too? Ummm yes. Do I sometimes slack off on my housewifely duties and park the kids in front of the TV or go out lunching when I should be cleaning? Yup. And when I was on a payroll I used to surf the net and have pretend meetings at the coffee shop with my work mates.

Personally I love being with my kids full time. With three kids and Mr MITB working his hours I'm glad I do not also have to juggle work and daycare at this point.

So what's my point? Ummm, it's all valuable, it all has to be done by someone. And for the moment, I'm the one doing it, so I'm going to own it. It's my job.