As I was straddling a rafter on my parents’ barn addition while helping Jon hammer the tin roofing in place (and having the time of my life, I might add), I started thinking of all the fun I enjoy as a wife and mother. There are never any dull moments because my daily activities are so diversified that life at home is truly an adventure!
Then I reflected on a conversation I had with my neighbor. Months after my neighbor’s second child was born, I noticed that she was still home each day. Happy that she would stay home with her children now, I expressed my hearty enthusiasm. Unfortunately, she was just home on leave and would soon be returning to work because, as she frankly explained, “I could never stay at home; I’d be terribly bored.” I was so sad then for her and her children, but now in retrospect I laugh out loud.
My job description, and that of all stay-at-home moms, could read as follows: child caretaker, teacher, executive director, management expert, decorator, psychologist, counselor, nutritionist, accountant, doctor, nurse, pharmacist, dentist (we pull out teeth), chef, fashion designer (thank God it is we who select our children’s clothes and dress them and not our husbands), barber (haircuts), hairdresser, tailor, maid, operator, chauffeur, shoe salon attendant (constantly putting on our children’s shoes), photographer (our kids will look back and say, “Where was Mom during my childhood? She’s never in any of the pictures”), plumber (the first time Jedidiah went potty by himself, he used half the roll of toilet paper to wipe himself so …), painter, gardener, entertainer, activity coordinator (would the family go anywhere if we didn’t schedule outings?), comedian, missionary, opera star (you know how I love to sing!), dancer (and dance), librarian, architect (Lego and block expert), artist, actor (farmer, cowboy, clown, customer, airplane, train, dog, elephant …), mechanic (okay, so this is stretching it a bit but I did fill the radiator with water, charged a battery, and told the certified mechanic that I thought the lifters were causing the racket).
After tabulating all my titles and singing my version of “And I’m a woooman—da dada da da,” I had to laugh because I remembered that my neighbor is a secretary who sits at a desk all day. Who was she kidding? Absolutely no one. The Deceiver kidded her.
So saddened by the thought I almost fell off the rafter—shoo-wee it was time for me to get back to being a carpenter. I just love being a wife and mother!!
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