Adding to my last post, here a few more things you could do if you wanted (obviously addressing only women and mothers here!):
Have a natural birth.
Breastfeed.
Breastfeed your baby past age one. Past age two. Past age three. Past age four.
Have your kids home with your kids home with you all day, every day. (You wouldn't go crazy. They wouldn't become clingy, socially-stunted introverts. Trust me.)
Have large-ish family (because we're not actually a large family, in my opinion).
You could, if it's what you wanted. Of course, there may be other reasons you don't, and that's perfectly fine. But I'm always alarmed when people marginalize me - and us - as if I'm a supermom (or just a crazy person, depending on your viewpoint!). The above list is not true of me and my family because I have strength beyond normal womanhood or motherhood. I have a low pain threshold (I'm pretty wimpy about it, actually). I like personal space (and have very little these days.) I like neat, orderly spaces (which are also few and far between). It also seems like people assume that homeschoolers and/or stay-at-home moms are either wealthier than most, or too poor and homely to care about what "everybody else" cares about. I know the former isn't true of us, and I don't think the latter is, either. We just do it.
And that's how it is - you just do it. And in the doing, you find out what you're made of, not the other way around!
No comments:
Post a Comment