My Seussical Life for 2005 March 28 (entry 1)

(5) Mon Mar 28 2005 14:45: I didn't really like my last entry--too much of an expose, so I'm deleting it. Sorry guys!

Comments:

Posted by Susie at Tue Mar 29 2005 07:21

Haha, I'd already read it. :)

Posted by John at Tue Mar 29 2005 08:10

I enjoy reading your entries. Being a parent is a noble calling, and is the most difficult thing one can do. Though I am not ready to be a daddy yet, I feel myself preparing for parenthood everyday when I read your anecdotes.

Incidentally, I had a senior manager last summer that had a huge impact on me. She was an unmarried working woman, and she detested it when people implied that she was a career woman; she was simply a woman with a career. If she could have a family, she'd do it in a new york minute.

Anytime someone said they went back to work after having kids, she said they took the easy way out. Nothing is harder than being a parent, and they preferred their cushy corporate jobs to crying babies and constant chaos. Kudos to you on your perseverance.

Posted by Joe Walch at Tue Mar 29 2005 09:30

Darn! Should have read that entry. As for working women, the world tells us that if we aren't making over $100,000, then we are living a life of poverty--especially if we have children. I think that too many people are too caught up the "getting and spending" that Wordsworth said when he wrote "the world is too much with us."

There was a report, recently, on Foxnews.com, that working mom's actually had more of an positive influence on children because they had more "quality time." As I think that it is important to not sacrifice quality for quantity, I think that nothing can replace a stay-at-home mom. I think that Alyson is doing that quite well.

I also think of our grandparents (Walch) and would probably say that they were not focused on their kids like they should have been. Grandpa was a corporate carrer guy--never ever missed a day at work (even if it was to take his kids out for a day), and grandma seemed emotionally unwilling (or unable) to nuture children the way that they needed even though she was a stay-at-home mom.

I am excited to have kids soon. I think that it will be a wonderful experience, and I hope to build more support around my kids than was built around me.

Posted by Frances at Tue Mar 29 2005 10:06

Your manager is right, John. It IS much harder to stay at home with kids than to work. I've done both (because I had to work) and believe me, it's easier to go to work than cope all day alone at home.

Posted by Kristen at Thu Mar 31 2005 16:02

I agree. I work and it is easier to hand off Lily at her least appealing time of day--evenings. Although, I cannot wait to stay at home with her and the rest of my kids, I know that it is hard. Yesterday I witnessed my father-in-law, a grown man cry like a baby, thanking his deceased mother for always being there for them. When he woke up, she was there, when he came home from school, she was there. He said there is nothing that can take the place for a mother in the home. They always knew their mom was going to be there for them. I'm sure it was hard for her to not want to have her own thing going on, but I have no doubt that hearing her kids speak of her like that at her funeral made it all worth it.