work at home, stay at home, working....mom

ok, i know i'm not inventing the wheel here, but i've been thinking a lot about work & motherhood. well, obviously since now i'm a mom. and until recently, i worked. i worked a lot, actually. you could even call me a work-aholic. i was {am still?} in a field that is extremely demanding, my days were 12+ hours, my weeks 6+ days...some days i would get up before patty woke up and get home long after she had gone to bed. i loved my job...i was good at it and i was very career focused...

i assumed i'd have baby, recover, then pop back to work as soon as she turns three months old, right? not so much. i'm doing everything i can to try to be a stay-at-home mom for a little longer...something i never thought i'd do or want.

yes, i consider myself a feminist and i believe feminism means "do whatever you want," not "women need to be just like men." so, if you want to be a stay-at-home mom, you're just as much a feminist as a career lady in my book...so long as you choose it. i just thought i would choose career lady...

i realized that in choosing career i was choosing something that was fulfilling but something that also was based in some materialism. financial need of course, but i'll admit i loved having the extra income to fuel my etsy addiction, among other things...

so, my priorities have shifted. i choose beatrice and giving her the emotional attachment in these crucial early years. i read somewhere that your kids want you and your attention, not things. in reality, i may have to be work-at-home mom, too, and that's ok. can this all change tomorrow, of course. who knows, i may get a call for a job and have to take it.

but i'm not going to judge myself...{and i'm not judging anyone who makes different decisions than mine, it's all good: working mom, stay-at-home mom, work-from-home mom, you name it...it's a personal choice and as women we need to support each other's choices...}

now i find myself dipping back into old careers to make a little money here and there doing things from home...i know i've been hinting at other projects for a while, and well, i'm still gonna hint because nothing is fully developed yet...but i'm doing the best i can and loving beatrice and doing what's important for our family right now.

{photo credit american express via celebrity baby blog}