Y2 Stay at Home
By Cheryl Gochnauer

This week will be packed with retrospectives I can't change and predictions I can't bring to pass. But that doesn't mean I don't have any influence.

As I sit here, musing about Y2K like everybody else, I feel a heightened awareness of things to come, and a nostalgia surrounding past events. This week will be packed with retrospectives I can't change and predictions I can't bring to pass. But that doesn't mean I don't have any influence. On the contrary - each of us has an immeasurable impact on the futures of our own families.

Here are the thoughts of Kate, a Homebodies reader contemplating her own unfolding life as a parent:

"I think this generation of women is struggling with the notion that we have
to be able to do it all. And if we don't, we're betraying all the women who
sacrificed so much to get us the right to be treated 'equal.'

"This country went through a social experiment in the last generation,
having both parents work outside the home. I believe it has proved to be a
failure.

“Why did we think that a child doesn't need his mother? I believe
stay-at-home moms are on the cutting edge of societal evolution. We're
saying, 'Not only is it important to be a mom, but it is the MOST important
job.' I'll return to the workforce if and when I can do so and not compromise my children."

I think Kate's made some good points. We are experiencing first-hand a
societal evolution, a broadening of the stay-at-home/working mother
discussion. No longer is success defined solely by how many rungs we climb on the corporate ladder. We’ve broken through the glass ceiling; now let’s consider our options.

Many mothers are examining ways to limit their hours, exploring job-sharing and working at home so they can focus more on their families. Some are opting to pursue a career as a full-time, at-home mother. After all, it's in the faces of our grown children that we'll find reflected our greatest work.

"For me, it's summed up by a saying, which I'm paraphrasing here: 'In a hundred years, it won't matter what kind of car I drove or what kind of house I lived in. But the world may be a better place because I made the difference in the life of a child.'"

(Comments? E-mail Kate at ktmae123@dellnet.com or visit Cheryl's website at www.homebodies.org. You'll find her new book, "So You Want to Be a Stay-at-Home Mom," at your favorite bookstore or online at www.amazon.com. Copyright 1999 Cheryl Gochnauer.)

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