On a Rampage

I am on a rampage today.

This is something I normally wouldn't bring up because I know people have strong feelings about it.

But here's the deal:  Why do people who don't want to take care of kids have kids in the first place?

I mean, like it's not that hard to not get pregnant.

I know I'm hypersensitive to all of this because I now have a child, but I've spoken to so many women who also have children who don't understand my desire to be at home with my baby.

And not only that, they're downright mean about it.

I've had several who've made rude remarks about how I can't stay after work, how I literally run out the door at 5, because I have a baby.

And that apparently is a bad thing.

I've even had one lady look at me in disgust when I told her that my family came first.

Oprah was interviewing her staff the other day in honor of her 25th and final season.  She kept pointing out that most of her employees were working mothers.  But then one lady said, "Oh, yeah, working for Oprah, there are times when I don't see my kids for weeks at a time.  But it's ok, because when you work for Oprah, the work you're doing makes a difference."

A difference??

What about your family??

What kind of difference are you making to them?

I had another lady tell me that she barely ever saw her kids when they were growing up because she was at work all the time, but that she was almost always at their "functions".

As if that somehow made up for it.

As a result, her kids are closer to her sister-in-law, who raised them, than they are to her.

Don't get me wrong. 

I understand that some women have to work to make ends meet.

Believe me, I get it.

I just happen to be one of those.

But what is this attitude that children are a hindrance, a nuisance, something that can be had and then placed in someone else's care without a second thought?

And that anyone who wants to be with their children is obviously crazy?

And why is it that being a stay-at-home-mom is so devalued? 

I'll tell you right now that staying home with my baby for the first three months of her life was the hardest thing I've ever done. Working at a "real job" is fifty-five times easier.

Do people not realize that as more and more mothers are away from the home, the worse and worse society as a whole is becoming?

Maybe it's just the people I'm around, but good grief!

I'm so tired of feeling like I have to explain myself all the time.

Ugh.

Rampage complete.

*Side note:  I'm only partially sorry for the amount of italicized words I used in this post.