Homemaking is Great Work

I am a homemaker.  I have a love/hate relationship with forms that ask me to list my occupation.  I've written MOTHER, just like that in screaming capital letters.  I've filled in the blank with N/A on days when I wasn't feeling so hot.  I am a college graduate.  I did have a career, but I like what I'm doing now ever so much better.  Most of the time, I either write "Homemaker" or "Domestic Goddess" on those forms.  They are both true, and I'm happy with my occupation.

I am never bored.  The commute is a breeze.  I can set my own hours (didn't say that those hours are honored, but I can set them).  There is no end to creative license.  I can laugh out loud, sit on the floor, and eat any time I want to.  And I get to boss other people around.  I get hugs and snuggles, and my cow-orker-husband-dude gives me... what isn't normal from other co-workers (I like cow-orkers better.  Thanks, Mike.).  Foot rubs, if you're curious.  And I get to control the thermostat.

It's a lot of hard work.  And it often involves menial labor.  Most jobs, when you get right down to it, do require some menial labor.  Filing papers.  Sorting paperclips.  Getting the mail.  Crawling under the desk to see why the internet is down again.  Dusting.  Cleaning out the drink machine.  Shoveling the front walk.  Saying "Have a nice day" a million times in a row.  And like most jobs, in order for me to feel the most fulfilled about my work, I have to work it.

I do work.  Lots.  And I play.  Not as much as I should.  And I stop and appreciate.  And I give compliments and encourage and bite my tongue.  And I love seeing what other mothers have to say about their work.  You can call that networking.

We network over the back fence and across the rows of weeds vegetables.  We network at church and on the back row of cub scout pack meeting.  We network on the phone while emptying the dishwasher and at the park and when planning play dates (hate that term, BTW.  I don't think parents should schedule their kids that much!).  And we network online.  Here are a few of my recent mothering favorites:  The myth of the perfect day The art of making a home, Dear Mom you are amazing, and the whole living with kids house tours section on Design Mom.  I'll just give a shout-out to the Establish a House series starting over at Chocolate on My Cranium.

I'm a fan of homemaking.  I think it is the best - and most important - job in the world.  Each of us was brought up is some home or another, and the future of the world is, in great part, determined by what goes on at our hearths.  Like.  Love it.  I'm living my dream.