Own It, Sister

(Bad language alert: first paragraph and blockquote)

I was reading this post called, “10 Things That Piss Me Off About Blogging,” and one of them was:

2. Stay at home moms who are constantly bitching about being a stay at home mom. I’ve been a working mom, a stay at home mom, and a work at home mom. IT IS NOT THAT FUCKING HARD.

Yeah, that bugs me, too. Not the occasional gripe – we all have those days – but the constant complainers that leave you wondering why they ever had kids, and why they don’t just go back to work.

I’ll tell you what bugs me equally as much, though. Working mothers who constantly complain that the world does not revolve around making it easier for them to work and have kids.

Before the working moms beat me up, I never had this gripe more than I did when I was a working mom. It drove me crazy. I was like, “Why on earth did you have kids in the first place if you want to be at work all day and have someone else raise them?”

I was always one of those crazy women who would take a lower paying job with less hours, so I could have my kids in daycare the least amount of time, but that’s just me. I could never relate to the moms who would complain when they had to take a day off for a school vacation. Heaven forbid they spend a day with their children.

I guess we are all different. Women, that is. I always wanted to stay home with my kids, but circumstances dictated that I work. (I was a single mom until 5 years ago when Bob and I married.)

My issue is with women who will not own their choices. If you want kids, don’t complain that you have to take care of them and society won’t do it for you so you can fulfill your other ambitions.

This rant was prompted by our newspaper’s mom blog, Moms Blog Best, which they printed an excerpt from in the paper. The post is called “Generational Discord,” dated Thursday, Jun 14. You have to scroll to get to it because the permalink does not work.

I don’t want to get into a line-by-line response to the whole post, but the entire thing was just plain irritating to me.

Basically, the writer throws out an example of a mom who wanted more maternity leave, while maintaining job security, as justification for her anxiety over summer childcare for her school-aged children.

Red herring, anyone?

And when her mom said that she chose to have children, she responds by implying that the human race would die off if she – and other working moms – didn’t have children.

Somehow, I doubt it.

Don’t get me wrong. It is fine with me if women want to work. I just get tired of people who don’t own their life choices and take responsibility for them. That goes for all moms – working, stay-at-home, or other.

If you stay-at-home, don’t constantly complain about it, as Vodkarella so eloquently pointed out.

If you work, don’t constantly complain about it. The rest of the world is not here to make it possible for you to be a superwoman.

(Hat tip for the “10 Things” post: PHAT Mommy)