What it means to be a mom:

What it means to be a mom to me: In honor of Mother’s Day (already past), I wanted to take a few minutes and talk about moms and what it means to me to be a mom.

I love being a mom, and during this last year, I was able to be a stay-at-home mom. And I have loved it! Were there hard days? Of course. No mom can say that every day is easy. But that doesn’t mean that we hate staying home with our kids. I would give anything for my kids. Yes, they can drive me crazy some days, but like I said, that doesn’t mean that I hate being a stay-at-home mom.

When I look back at my childhood, was it always the best? No. 🙂 But I was also the youngest of nine kids, so yeah, it wouldn’t be all sunshine and rainbows all the time. And that’s okay. When I look back at what my parents did for me and all they sacrificed for me and my siblings, it makes me even more thankful. There are going to be some things that we, as parents, will need to sacrifice for our family. Whether it’s our time, money, or whatever it may be. But what we sacrifice for our kids, for our family, is so that we can give them something better.

I may not have many friends, and that’s okay. While it’s nice to have friends, you want to have the right kind of friends who will encourage you and not tear you down. Life isn’t easy. What is easy, anymore, right?

Being a mom is one of the greatest and hardest things I’ve ever done. And now I’ve been able to help someone else become a mom (and dad)! Was that always easy? Definitely not! The pregnancy was a bit rough just with the pregnancy insomnia and sinus issues at night, but other than that, the pregnancy was fine! And the saying goodbye to the baby and the parents was hard! Even though none of the DNA, the baby is not genetically mine in any way, I was just the carrier, it was harder to say goodbye than I thought it would be! But I was able to help someone else have their dream, their miracle – a baby! And that was amazing!!!

So what does it mean to me to be a mom?! Absolutely everything!! So many people shame moms anymore and it’s horrible. It’s sad. You get shamed whether you want to stay-at-home with your children or whether you want to work outside the home and help your family financially. No matter what you do, you get criticized. It breaks my heart.

With everything a woman, as a mom, goes through – we beat ourselves up every day. We don’t talk about it, but we do. We may not look or seem like we do, because we have our smiles and our brave/strong face on, but we do. Do we love being home with our kids, yes. Do we feel bad for not working outside the home so our husband isn’t the only one “working”? Also, yes. And yes, the moms do so much at home that would cost a ton of money otherwise, like childcare – that costs almost a whole paycheck anymore, so it wouldn’t even do the parents any good, because one of the parents would be away from the children all day, then be home with them for a couple hours before putting them to bed. And that isn’t right.

While nowadays, it’s hard for anyone to live, even with two incomes in the house, people are still living paycheck to paycheck and barely surviving. Is that what we want? No. At least I hope it isn’t.

Anyway, I’ve gotten a little sidetracked. No matter what is going on in the home, whether the mom is working away from home or is a stay-at-home mom, she is doing great things and she is doing her best. She is a MOM! I’m thankful for my mom and my mother-in-law!

We need to stop shaming moms. Anyway, hope everyone had a great Mother’s Day weekend and it is now Memorial Day.

Remember to thank a veteran. ❤