Respect for stay-at-home mothers..

A friend and his wife joined us at church today. They brought along their 5-month baby and felt immediately at ease with RLC's nursery area. She delivered her baby in March and has since left her job to be a full-time home-maker/mother/wife etc. Looking at her, I felt a strong sense of respect for her. I started asking myself "would I quit my job to take care of my 2 boys all by myself?" It's a question that I've asked myself during my 1st confinement after delivering Isaac. Then, my quick reply was NO. Financial limitation aside, I find it a really HUGE sacrifice for any working mums to take this bold step. I do not pride myself as being a workaholic... but to certain extend, I like my job & I like having my financial independence plus a strong social network which I've build across the last 10 years working in the media industry. 

Confinement period/maternity leave is by far the closest I could get to being a stay-at-home mother. Not to say I do not enjoy it..but during those period, I kept a close contact with all my friends & some colleagues - just to make sure I'm still 'in' with the latest goss & work-related news! Plus having spent the last 10 years building my career, I find it really hard to leave all that behind to 'just take care of the boys'. I'm sure a lot of you out there would disagree with me, thinking what kind of mum I am; why wouldn't I look forward to spending every single waking moment with them? to watch them grow up & not miss a single important milestone..!? I often picture this in my head - I love them both a lot and whenever I get to spend time with them both esp. on weekends, I'm exhilarated. 

This makes me 'look forward to spending time with them' ie looking forward to weekends on a blue Monday morning..haha! But what if I spend every single hour of the day, 365 days, every year with them both, how would I feel? I might be a lot less patient with them, might discipline them (ie beat them lightly...hehe) a little bit more and I might look like a 'yellow face woman' (ie wong mien por) a lot sooner than I like. I treasure ME time a lot. And often try to sneak a few hours whether it's after work or maybe by taking leave to spend some time with myself; doing things that I like, just like those days when I was a single young girl. This makes me feel younger, love myself a little bit more and value things around me a lot more! It's important to first love yourself, then you will know how to love others..! agree with me..not? leave me a note :)

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