Thursday, May 28, 2009

what do you think?

o.k. I've noticed something lately...

Moms who are always on the go. (I don't remember my mom going anywhere except church.)

Have you noticed that?  I think I'm always on the go and then my friend tells me...
"No...you're always at home."

I said..."no...during the week I'm at home...but I feel I get out a lot for a stay-at-home mom."

She disagreed with me and then we just changed the subject because we both knew we weren't going to agree.

So ...
what do you think?

What should a Christian's mom's agenda be when she has children under the age of 18 in her home?
Obviously it's different if your kids are 3, 4 and 5 verses 16, 17 and 18 year's old.
Can a mom and wife be gone most afternoons, evenings, etc. with her own agenda and still be influential in her home?
How often should she be at home?  Obviously I know what I think...
but what do you think?

5 comments:

Lorrie said...

Sorry folks...somehow I put this into draft this morning...go figure!

Erin said...

Bless you for posting this, as I feel like I am the only one. I've really gotten a lot of strange looks for deciding I need to be home a lot and arranging our lives so that I can be. Society seems to be going in a different direction, though, and it is difficult to be home. I turn down those invitations that say, "leave the kids with your husband on the weekends...it is "your" time." Um, no...my time is my family time and when my husband is home and available, I want to be there.

As for the age question, I think the older our kids have gotten, the more they've needed to know that I'm there, I am dialed in, and I am available. I have kids that range in age from 10-18 and they each need me in different ways. For me, my focus is home.

Bethany said...

You may have noticed we're not at Wednesday night activities at church nor do we turn out for much other evening stuff besides AWANA. I firmly believe that our consistent evening routine at home keeps my kids on track during the day. I make a choice to stay home with the kids in the evenings.

During the day we are out and about but only in a SAHM kind of way--park playdates, grocery store, helping out at the kid's school. A SAHM who doesn't know how to stay home sometimes is missing the point.

Joyeful said...

This is a great discussion! (I'm going to go follow your blog now b/c I've really been enjoying it)

I agree with the comments so far. Especially what Bethany said, "A SAHM who doesn't know how to stay home sometimes is missing the point."

I have little ones right now and I really am home all day almost every day but even though I'm home sometimes I'm absent emotionally or mentally and the Lord has really been speaking to me about being as "available" as I can be--just looking in their eyes--rolling in the grass with them--structuring our activities.

Lorrie said...

It's hard because I know folks...who don't stay at home and they don't seem to get this. My hubby and I have given me a Saturday here and there to roam about and do errands alone and I feel that means I get out a lot. My sister works and ALL her free time is with her daughter and the same folks get miffed because she isn't always on the go.
In either case...the media and society infers daily that a woman shouldn't have HOME as the focus. That mindset is even in the church...the focus for a woman isn't on being what God called you to be...wife, mother, grandmother but on anything that gives you that "good feeling". My pastor isn't like that...but femanism is creeping into the church. It's cloaked under a myriad activities.