A stay-at-home mother

I like this well-known quote from G.K. Chesterton's book 'What's wrong with the world?'

It starts by pointing out that it is illogical to say that being a full-time wife/mother results in a  "narrowing" of the mind, because it requires such a very wide diversity of skills and talents, incomparable to any paid employment. You wear many different hats and play many different roles, and, if done with effort and contientiously, how could that result in a narrowing of the mind?

"To be Queen Elizabeth within a definite area, deciding sales, banquets, labors, and holidays; to be Whitely within a certain area, providing toys, books, cakes, and boots; to be Aristotle within a certain area, teaching morals, manners, theology, and hygiene, I can understand how this might exhaust the mind, but I cannot imagine how it could narrow it."

You often hear people saying that women want to work because to stay at home with their children would somehow be limiting on their skills.

GK Chesterton goes on to point out that it is illogical to see it that way because when you have a paid job you only have one role....if you're a secretary, you're a secretary to everyone you meet at work, and nothing more.  Whereas with your children, you are everything. You are their entire world! Not just one role but every single role imaginable! You employ more roles as a mother and wife than any paid occupation could possibly offer.

Although he puts it much better:

"How can it be a large career to tell other people's children about the Rule of Three, and a small career to tell one's own children about the universe?

How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone, and narrow to be everything to someone?"

The quote ends with him saying that a woman's role at home is laborious, because it is a BIG job, not because it is small or limiting.

No, a woman's function laborious; but because it is gigantic, not because it is minute. I will pity Mrs. Jones for the hugeness of her task; I will never pity her for its smallness."

G. K. Chesterton, What's Wrong with the World.

Little T0 is 9 months old now, and I always get philosophical around this age, because this is the age I returned to work when B7 was born. I am so immensely grateful I get to stay home now and be with my precious darlings all day!