Dear Dr. Laura,
Today was one of the proudest moments of my life, I watched my son leave for the Army. He made the decision to join the Army with the full blessing of his dad (my husband) and me. My son is a selfless, caring man and I am honored to be his mother.
Before my husband and I got married over 20 years ago, we discussed how we wanted to raise our family. Since we both had stay-at-home moms, we knew it was important I stayed home to raise our four children. Being a stay-at-home mom has been and continues to be a wonderful, frustrating, beautiful and exhausting job, but it is the best thing we could give our kids. It has not always been easy. Diapers, breast feeding, late nights, early mornings, little sleep, lots of laundry, snotty noses and all of the demands of a growing family, can wear a person out. But I learned that the sacrifices of a stay-at-home mom far outweighed the inconveniences.
When I hear the "you can do it all" message and see women, every day make the choice of putting their career before their children, I am frustrated and sad for them and their families. Today, as I watched my baby swear allegiance to our country and start on this path, I realized I have been present for every "major" moment in his life. I was there for his first smile, first laugh, first step, first day of Kindergarten, first award he received, etc. I also realized I was there for almost every "minor" moment in his life. I was there for his first scraped knee, his first bad day at school, and his first broken heart. I then realized that those "minor" moments were a major part of his life and I have never regretted being there for him and our other children.
Once, when talking to my pastor about husband/kids/household duties, he explained to me my hard work and sacrifice is always worth it. He pointed out that Olympic athletes don't just "get the gold" for showing up occasionally, they work hard and sacrifice and see the fruits of their labor in their successes. One of our family's successes is on his way to defending our country and the sacrifice to be his stay-at-home mom is worth all of the gold medals in the world.
Thank you for all of your words of wisdom. Keep fighting the good fight!
Sincerely,
Stephanie
