A Thankless Job: Stay-at-Home-Mom

Being a stay at home mom can be a very challenging job. To many Americans, a stay at home mom has the easiest job of all; however, a stay at home mom has many duties: childcare provider, bookkeeper, maid, nutritionist, cook, secretary, taxi driver, laundry service and in some cases, referee.

The obvious task is taking care of the children. For the children who go to school, they must be bathed, dressed every day for school. For the children at home, they must be bathed, fed and watched all day. Doesn't sound like a lot, does it? Well, a stay at home mom must deal with much more!

Bills must be paid. Checks need to be deposited. Groceries need to be purchased. Field trips for school need to be paid for. In general, a stay at home mom must keep track of all of the family's finances. This can be quite a task in itself; ensuring that the checks for the bills are mailed on time, the money's in the bank when it needs to be, there are always enough groceries in the house and everyone has their money for their individual needs, such as work lunches or school lunches, school field trips, etc.

Of course the house must be clean! A stay at home mom works hard to make sure the floors are clean, dishes are done, laundry is put away, beds are made and toys and books are where they should be.

The children and the husband (if there is one) need nutritional meals. The stay at home mom has the task of ensuring that the household is eating healthy food, and the children aren't getting a lot of junk food.

Nutrition leads into the cooking task, which of course every stay at home mom must do as well. If there are children at home during the day, the cooking duties are round the clock; if everyone is gone at school or work during the day, this may only be for breakfast and dinner.

A secretary's job is to handle paperwork, create and maintain schedules, and answer the telephone. A stay at home mom also has this task; filing pay stubs, tax records, school papers; signing any necessary documents, coordinating the entire household's schedules and taking any phone messages.