Working Moms

This year is a Presidential election year. The rhetoric is flying in both directions with both parties pointing fingers and placing blame.

One thing that caught my attention was the comment by Hillary Rosen directed at Ann Romney made during an interview on CNN.com. She made the statement that "Ann Romney has never worked a day in her life". I take issue with that statement because being a full-time mom is what I would classify as "real work."

Taking care of kids is a lot of work! Quite a few years ago, my wife and I both worked. We had one 2 year old at the time and a new born daughter. We found we were spending all of one our salaries, or the majority of it, on daycare for both kids. After looking at our finances, my wife decided to quit her job and stay home with the kids. It was NOT and easy decision for either of us, as she was the major breadwinner of our family at the time. I took the opportunity to stay home with them for a couple weeks while my wife was finishing up her 2 weeks notice at her job. I have never worked so hard in my life!

My wife came home each day of those 2 weeks to a house that looked like it had been hit by a hurricane. I was constantly cleaning, feeding, changing diapers, etc. all day every day for those 2 weeks. My sweetheart would come in the house and say, "What happened here?!?" I would give her a blow by blow description of what had happened and we would move on from there.

A few years later, my wife went to a Women's Conference for a week and I stayed home with the kids. We were up to 3 kids by then. You can imagine what the house looked like. It looked like it was "lived in", is the best way I can describe it. When my wife got back from the conference, I told her that I didn't know how she got everything done during the day, that needed to be done. I asked her how she did it and she just laughed. I am a firm believer that ALL DADS should send their wife out of town for a week and stay home with the kids, if for no other reason, than to gain a better appreciation for everything their wife does.

I have the utmost respect for women who CHOOSE to stay at home. I realize that it does put a financial strain on the family when the family has to adjust their lifestyle to only having one income provider. It may mean selling their nice house and buying something within their budget. It may mean that the existing cars may have to be sold and used cars bought in their place. It is a sacrifice, however, it is a sacrifice well worth making for the sake of our children.

Our children were taught, by their mother, important values that they still use today. Those values include, but are not limited to,  Love, Humility, Respect, Responsibility, Kindness, Generosity, Trust, Integrity, Accountability. They used these values with their siblings. They used these values in school. I think that one of the reasons we are seeing problems in our schools right now is because kids didn't, or don't, have a mother at home to teach those values.

I am not saying that fathers are incapable of teaching children values. I am saying that mothers have an innate ability to nurture children that we fathers don't have. Can we, as fathers, learn to teach our children values? You bet we can! Just because we weren't born with that nurturing instinct, doesn't mean that we can't teach values to our children. We, as fathers, have a tendency to teach our children values by our EXAMPLES. Our kids watch and listen to us, even when we don't think they are watching or listening. We do our children a GREAT DISSERVICE by not setting a good example for them.

Do I disagree with Ms. Rosen? You bet I do!