Am I really ‘just a Mum’?

Am I really ‘just a Mum’?

I get labelled this phrase more often than not. Just a Mum. It still leaves me speechless when I hear it. Yes I am a mum. Right now, while raising 4 children aged 5 and under with a husband who works over 5,000 miles away, I am solely being a mother to my children. I am putting 100% of my time, energy and effort into raising my children.

If this gives me the label of being ‘just a mum’ then thank you, I shall take it and I will wear it with pride.  

I do not judge, nor do I pass comment, on working mothers.

In fact I regularly wonder how people manage to juggle being parents and work. How are there enough hours in the day to go to work and be a mother? I think it’s admirable that so many successfully split their time between their career and home life.

That being said, that does not mean being a full time stay at home parent is easy. I don’t need to go into the small print of the stay at home mum job description – no wage, no breaks, no designated time for lunch. No sick pay, no holidays, no time to even go to the toilet alone. You are at work 24/7 for 24 hours of the day. Oh and you don’t make a penny. There aren’t any promotions, or bonuses, in this job. 

I think most people forget that us folk you label as ‘just a mum’ haven’t been on this career path all of our working lives. It isn’t something I personally aspired to be, I didn’t sit my A levels, or graduate from University, thinking wow I can’t wait to apply my 7 years of higher education to my job as a mother. We never use to have children, believe it or not we use to have careers, jobs and work colleagues. 

I myself had huge aspirations, I dreamt of working on a Paediatric Intensive Care Unit, helping to save lives. Working for a purpose, changing lives where I could. I studied long and hard, really bloody hard, to gain my qualifications and I finally landed my dream job. Then pregnancy sprung itself upon me. What a wonderful little surprise that was! Life flipped for me virtually overnight. I had every intention of going back to work after having my first born but circumstances meant otherwise. My husbands job sends him overseas for weeks at a time, one of needed to give our children stability. I wanted to be the one who gave them that stability.

I am incredibly fortunate to be in a position where I can choose to be a stay at home mum but please don’t underestimate the career I have chosen.

I didn’t choose the easy option.

Yes I miss my old job, I miss the adrenaline and the responsibility. I miss the title, the feeling of worth. I miss the feedback, some good some bad, the recognition that I am doing a job that people are thankful for. You don’t get a whole heap of unprompted thank you’s in my current job.