Stop Hating on Working Moms

I chose to stay at home with my daughter until she was in the third grade. I am not so naive as to realize how lucky I was to get to spend that time with her, but to say I was never a little miserable just isn’t the truth. At all.

In fact, when she was about eight or nine months old, I decided I needed to go back to work. I secured a job at a local daycare and in we went. She went to the baby room, and I headed into the preschool area to learn the ropes. By the end of the day, she and I both were done with that awful place and never returned.

I was meant to stay at home with her. And after my brief soiree at the daycare I was happy. BUT– I won’t say being a stay at home mom isn’t lonely or that it isn’t hard work. And that’s why I totally understand why some women choose to go back to work. Let me be very clear right now that I am not talking about people who HAVE to go back to work, I am talking about the moms who choose it. The women who choose their career over putting it on hold while they raise their children.

These women aren’t bad people. These women are awesome. They are teaching their little girls and their little boys that women can be anything they want to be. That it’s okay to work hard for something you want, and to earn all the titles and rewards that go along with it. These women are impressive. These women are willing to lead a life full of sacrifices like missing their babies and compromises like working jobs that understand when you have to pick up a sick kid from daycare. These women are superheroes day and night, working hard to have it all, with basically no sleep.

So, the next time you see a woman in tall shoes and a really smart pant suit pushing a stroller while on her lunch break so she gets to spend a little more time with her kid, don’t look down on her. Give her a thumbs up and be impressed instead.

WANT MORE? STOP HATING ON THE HELICOPTER MOM.