I’m having one of those days where I want to quit my financially responsible adult life, go home, and crawl into bed with my babies. We would snuggle, work on their homeschooling, and watch old movies for the rest of the evening.
This morning started out with my 2 1/2 year old crying for me to stay home. My baby’s display of separation anxiety ripped at my heart. I don’t normally feel the “working mom’s” guilt, because I know that I HAD to work full-time after my husband’s accident (I’m working on an About Me page that will explain this in further detail). However, the guilty feelings are creeping up on me because I can’t make my stay at home transition happen quicker.
Recently, I received an e-mail from a well-meaning friend, who wrote, “If you want to be a stay at home mom so badly, why don’t you just stay home now?” If only it were that easy. I wouldn’t be here blogging, but rather handing in my notice immediately! In fact, I’ve daydreamed about that day right down to the exact wording of my resignation letter!
Unfortunately, our reality is that I am the major breadwinner. I cannot stay home until we have generated enough income (from my husband’s business and whatever WAHM business I do). This does not happen overnight. Through careful planning and budgeting, we have paid off most of our debt. We need to have our savings built up enough to get us through some inevitable lean months, when we are both self-employed again. Then I can stay home.
Anyway, I plan on taking a mental health day soon so I can spend a long weekend with my family, review our financial goals, and pray. Oh yeah, and maybe daydream a little.
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What’s in an acronym?
As a network engineer, I’m very familiar with acronyms related to the computer industry. These abbreviated word shortcuts make it faster for me to communicate with my colleagues. For example, instead of asking “What is the Transmission Control Protocol Internet Protocol address of the computer?”, we can say “What is the TCP/IP address?”, you get the picture.
Unfortunately, acronyms have become such a part of my everyday language that I use them when talking to my husband, who is not in the information technology (IT) field. Frank calls this techno-babble. “You’re slipping into techno-babble mode again” he reminds me frequently. That’s my verbal queue to define the acronym I’ve used. In fact, I think he coined the phrase techno-babble, and I’d like to give Frank full credit for that 
In case you’re interested in learning more networking acronyms, check out Home of the Network Acronyms. Thanks to Jan Elders for this extensive list!
Ok…so what does this have to do with my coming home mission? When I started researching “how to become a stay home mom”, I found many acronyms in the parenting category. Here are a few:
AP - Attachment Parenting
BF - Breastfeed
NAK - Nursing At Keyboard –>Have done this a few times
SAHM - Stay At Home Mom
SAHD - Stay At Home Dad
SAHP - Stay At Home Parent
WAHM - Work At Home Mom
WAHD - Work At Home Dad
WAHP - Work At Home Parent
WOHM - Work Outside the Home Mom
The first time I encountered SAHM, I quickly figured out it meant Stay At Home Mom. I must have been tired the day I came across a message board referring to WAHM, because I had to conduct a search at Acronym Finder.
Check out the first definition:
WAHM - Why does this Always Happen to Me
Ha! Will this become a self-fulfilling prophecy once I’ve become a SAHM or WAHM? I don’t think so. I am so fired up about coming home that I plan on changing that definition to a more positive one:
WAHM - Winning At Home Mom
I love it!
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While channel surfing tonight, we came across Fox Television reality show Nanny 911. The family featured has five boys including 2yo twins. I know that reality shows are edited to make things look more dramatic, but wow these little guys are wild. The mom Tracy is a SAHM and she is frazzled. I thought for a moment, “Do I really want to be a SAHM?”
I have five kids. They range in age from 2 to 15. As you can imagine, our home can get very busy and at times downright loud. When I think back to times when I’ve had a bad day and one or more of the kids are crying or arguing (or both), I would gladly trade my work outside the home job for being home amongst the chaos. So the answer is yes. I REALLY want to be a SAHM. As long as Fox’s nanny can come over and help me out.
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