Stay-at-Home-Mom is Not Enough: The Role of Homemakers in Our Society

While my full time job for the past five years has been taking care of my family, the current politically correct title "stay-at-home-mom or dad" does not encompass my career choice. Being a mom is only part of my career. I am also, among many other things, a wife, a friend, an organizer, a writer, a cook, a decorator, a party planner and an amateur psychologist. That's why I have embraced the old fashioned title of "homemaker".

With so many choices and opportunities available to parents, sometimes the idea of being a homemaker is not taken seriously enough. After all, who wants to be known as the one who "stays home and bakes cookies" in the family? The role of homemaker has been ridiculed and looked down upon as our society has become increasingly dependant on both parents working at jobs outside of the home. When was the last time you even heard the term "homemaker"? Today, I would like to suggest that if we as a society were to again embrace the hopelessly outdated term "homemaker" we would begin to regain respect and understanding for women and men who have made it their full-time jobs to make a home for their families and, in the process, improve their communities and ultimately the world around themselves.

The obvious difference that a homemaker makes is that they are there for their children's needs. If they have a sick child, they can keep the child home from school. If a child is troubled by violence in the media or violence from other children or feeling bombarded by inappropriate sexual information either from television, the internet or, again, from other children, there is a parent available for them to talk to at any time. This is not to say that a working parent can't be available to their children. There are most definitely working parents who are more attentive to their children than parents who are at home full time. It is, however, easier to be available to your children when your main responsibilities don't lie outside the home. Many parents do both jobs, working outside the home and parenting simultaneously, superbly. Many others, myself included, would be exhausted with the double effort.