Stay at Home WHAT?? {Mindful Mothering Mondays}

It's true. My husband is a stay at home dad. And an amazing one at that! It took me several years and about 3 kids in to come to be okay with the fact that he is better at "all that stuff" than I am. For so long, I felt like I should want to be home and I wondered why I felt that constant pull (a pull I'd honestly felt since childhood) to be in the medical field taking care of the least of these. It took me so long to realize that God matched Jase and I up for just that reason. So often, early in our marriage we sat and talked and struggled and fought about what Jason was going to do to support us. What career should he pick? Where should he work? Nothing ever really jumped out or seemed to be the right fit. While always in the back of my mind, I knew nursing was my calling.

So, I am the one who has the education, the drive, the want to work out of the home and better myself and my community. I'm the one who pulls on those scrubs and Danskos 3 nights a week to go and take care of the sick while my babies sleep at home without me.

He is the one who gets up while it is still dark, (me having just dropped into the bed from a long night at the hospital) to make sure kids are fed, hair is combed, dog is let out, etc. He's the one who chiefly drives kids around and drops them off where they need to be. He's the one who bathes 6 kids and puts them to bed at night. And you know what, he's GOOD at it. He's better at it than I could ever be.

We definitely don't fit the traditional husband/wife rolls. And there are still times I get that twinge of, I don't know, a case of the "what ifs". Sometimes it's hard to explain it to people and watch their faces twist up in confusion. "He stays home? How do you manage to pull that off? Why?" No one would EVER think to say some of those things to a mom who stays home, but for some reason it's different for a dad.

The most important things we have learned is to make the best of the strengths and gifts God has given us instead of trying to force ourselves into a mold that just isn't right for us. Him being home and me working 3 nights a week also allows for LOTS of family time where all 8 of us are together and that is something I would not trade for anything.


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