~Housewife or SAHM?~

Is there a difference between a housewife and a SAHM?  I think there is.

I hear moms talk about how they love being home with their kids, but they hate the day to day housework, or that once the kids are in school they will get a part time job to keep themselves from getting bored.  I don't have little ones anymore, but I still find that I am so busy doing just day to day stuff combined with my hobbies that I don't have a chance to be bored.

When my husband and I were dating we talked about our future, even before we knew it would include each other. He wanted a wife that would be home to take care of him, his children and his home.  I wanted a husband that knew the value of having a wife at home to provide for him while he provided for us.

We never talked about what I would do when the kids were older and grown, b/c my role was not that of a SAHM, it was that of a housewife.  If we had never been blessed with children I would still have been home taking care of him, and that is where I will be when our kids have moved out and started lives of their own.

Over the years I have tried a few things here and there to try to ease the burden from him, bringing in a bit of money.  However we quickly learned each time that other things suffered b/c of it.  If I was at work, we needed someone to watch the kids, which meant our kids were not with one of us but with someone else.

If I worked in the evenings when he was home with the kids then our marriage suffered.  We didn't have the time to spend with each other keeping us connected as a husband and wife.  Also if I was working I was too tired by the time I got home to get any cleaning done or dinner made and we would end up going out or ordering pizza.  That meant what little amount I was making wasn;t really helping at all.

It came down to us realizing that the small amount of money I would try to bring in wasn't worth me being gone all day.  Even with my kids being older, with two of them out of school and working and the third being able to take care of herself, he still needs me to take care of him.

There is really no greater feeling in the world than being needed by the man you love.  So as my children start to leave the nest I will remain a housewife.  My true calling, biding my time until I am a grandma that can spend her days baking cookies and playing with the grandkids.