*This article does not represent the views of Her Campus FSU.
We’re back with another themed week on the site: Career Week. This semester, Her Campus FSU has created themed weeks dedicated to exclusive content we believe all of our readers should have access to. Keep up on the site for the next few days as we cover everything from what NOT to put on your resume to a Q&A with an RMPD major currently interning at ELLE magazine in NYC. This week definitely won’t be filled with the cliché career advice you’re always hearing (take for instance there’s even a piece on how to deal with rejection). Don’t miss out!
As women growing up in a time where the majority of our moms worked while we were in school, we are expected to do the same. The feminist movement is becoming more prominent and gender roles are beginning to change. Women are fighting for their importance in society and the man is losing his place as the provider of the household. Trust me, I am ALL for this. Us women are pretty great, and we shouldn’t be expected to spend our lives cooking, cleaning and changing diapers. However, the word expected is what’s key in that phrase. We shouldn’t be expected to, but what if we want to?
I’m not quite speaking from personal experience here. I plan to have kids and I plan to take a couple of years off until they get into preschool. If I wanted to be a stay at home mom permanently, why do I get the automatic feeling that I would be judged for that? Why do I know that I would constantly hear comments like, “You’re just keeping the woman’s place in the kitchen” or “Don’t you want to be productive with your life?” To get an insider’s opinion on this, I spoke with Rebecca Lorelle, who wants to be a stay-at-home mom for all the right reasons.
Courtesy: Rebecca Lorelle
Lorelle is majoring in Marine Biology at Florida State and plans to be an Aquatic Veterinarian for a few years when she gets out of grad school, but once she gets married and settles down with kids she plans on kissing SeaWorld goodbye. According to Lorelle, she doesn’t want anyone else raising her children but her.
“I want to be there for every hurdle of their life. I don’t want them at a daycare every day. If my kid gets sick at school, I want to be able to pick them up and be there for them. My mom was a stay-at-home mom and I learned everything I ever needed to know from her, so I don’t see why it’s looked at so negatively.”
When asked why she thinks such a future plan is frowned upon in today’s society, Lorelle continued on to say that, “People think it’s negative because you’re giving up your career, but I still plan on doing that for as long as I want to do that. Children are the biggest blessing you’ll ever get – they’re not supposed to inhibit you. As a mother, you’re supposed to give your all to them.”
Stay-at-home mothers do a lot more than what meets the eye. They’re not just watching TV and occasionally cleaning the house. Their days start at six in the morning when their kids’ days start. Between making breakfast, cleaning the house, packing lunches, attending social events, working out, driving their kids all over town and making dinner, it might as well be a full-time job.
As long as this is what the mother wants, I am completely on board with stay-at-home moms. Kids will do nothing but benefit from being able to call their mom whenever they need her, having a fresh cooked meal to come home to every night and having someone to pick them up from school on time every day. To me, there is no shame in wanting a career in “mom”-ing.