Why It's Important to Me....

disclaimer: this is not meant to stir up any kind of debate about who is a better mother-the one who stays home with her children or the one that works outside of the home. Both are doing the best they can with what they have and what they know and neither is a better mother than the other...Just like in every other area of life, people are different.

That said...

It is, and always has been, a priority to me to stay at home with my children. I think from the beginning it was more about my "selfishness". I waited 4+ years for my first baby and there was no way I was going to "share" all those firsts with someone else. I wanted to be there for every waking-and sleeping-moment that Lindsay had. There were days when I had had no sleep the night before and prob'ly could've been a better mommy, but I did the best with her that I could and I LOVED her like no one else could've. Because I'm mommy.

As time went on it became more about shaping my children. I wanted my children (no longer babies) to have my values. The ones that my husband and I feel are important. I can't imagine for my part not being there if they get hurt (physically or emotionally) as they are so young still. I don't want to wait 8 hours to know that someone has broken their heart. Yes, at some point they will have to go out and "face the world" but for now, they are mine to protect!

One of the biggest things I hear against Homeschooling is that "You can't protect them forever" Yeah, I know that. But, I can take some more years to instill our values and wait until they are older and hopefully stronger in what they believe to face that world and what lies in wait for them. I love that my kids think the "f-word" is fart, the "d" word is dumb and the "s word" is stupid. That may seem naive to some, but they should be naive and innocent. They are just babies in the scheme of life. There is so much time to be grown up and they only have just this one chance to be kids!

**this was inspired by a blog post of Passionate Homemaking which is listed to the right in the blogs I keep up with. :)