• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Soldier's Wife, Crazy Life

  • Home
    • My Disclosure Policy
    • My Privacy Policy
    • Contact Me
  • Advertise With Me
  • The SWCL Shop
  • So Your Spouse Just Deployed, Now What?
  • Duty Stations
  • Surviving Deployment
  • Military Life
    • Movies & TV
    • Disneyland
    • Books
You are here: Home / Military Children / On Being A Stay At Home Mom

On Being A Stay At Home Mom

January 6, 2015 by Julie 2 Comments

 

On Being A Stay At Home MomI grew up with a stay at home mom. She was 33 when she had me and had already worked many years as a teacher. When I was in the 5th grade she went back as a full-time teacher for a year and then substituted after that until last year when she decided to join my Dad in retirement.

I am not sure if she is the reason why I did things the way I did. I knew I wanted to finish college before I got married. That was not something I was willing to compromise on. I got engaged at my graduation party and married 8 months later. I was pretty optimistic about my future career. I also had a plan. I would get a job I loved and work for a few years. Then we would have kids and I would become a stay at home mom. I didn’t really think much past that. I didn’t think about when I would go back to work. I just knew that I wanted to be a stay at home mom.

I wasn’t able to find a job in my career field that paid enough. They wanted someone with a Masters or someone who spoke spanish. I ended up working for a temp agency making more than I would have in some of the jobs I came across that would use my degree. Sociology is a degree but there isn’t much if you only have your BA.

I worked for about 2.5 years before my son was born and I finally got what I wanted. I was able to be a stay at home mom. We lived in a townhouse in the same city I had lived in for college, right where my husband grew up. When I quit my job I was selling books on Ebay. This brought in a little bit of money. After we moved to Kentucky, I added children’s clothing and got really into it. I was making a part-time income but it was busy and my mom helped out a lot from California as she would help shop for clothes I could sell.

Then, we moved to Germany. You can’t sell on Ebay in Germany so I closed up that business and was a stay at home mom until we moved back to the states in 2010. By then I had two boys and was pregnant with my third. I didn’t think I could do Ebay again, not the way I was doing it before so I focused on some other things. I had started my blog and was starting to get more interest in that.

Ever since 2010 I have been making money from home in one form or another. I love it. I love that I have something to focus on. I love that I have my own career and that I can do it around my kids, although that is very difficult sometimes. It’s much easier when all of them are in school on certain days. I am never ever bored because between the house, the kids and my work, there is always something to do.

At the moment I am a mix between the stay at home mom who takes care of the house and the work at home mom who is making some money. My husband works full-time out of the house.  It’s very traditional looking. Yet, I don’t see myself that way. My husband was the stay at home Dad and I was working from home for part of 2014. I have good friends that are working moms. I don’t think one way is better than any other. You have to do what works for your family at the time.

And I am only 35…I have a lot of time. I can go back to school. I can grow my writing career. I feel like I have a lot of room to do something different in a few years if I want to.

What about you? Are you a SAHM? Do you work from home? Do you work outside the house? What’s your ideal?

 

(Visited 106 times, 1 visits today)

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Email
  • Print

Filed Under: Military Children, Motherhood Tagged With: motherhood

About Julie

Owner of Soldier's Wife, Crazy Life. Writer, reader, coffee drinker. Mom to three boys, wife of a National Guard soldier. Living life in Tennessee.

Previous Post: « Faith Shift by Kathy Escobar Book Review
Next Post: Don’t Make Me Type In A Code And Other Blogging Annoyances »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Amber

    January 6, 2015 at 2:16 pm

    I’m a SAHM who sometimes makes money too. I earn money from my writing occasionally. With my husband’s crazy schedule, being a SAHM is the wisest choice for us.

    Reply
    • Julie

      January 23, 2015 at 9:47 am

      Since Ben just started working again, that is where I am too. I am earning a little but also focusing more on the kids and house. It is a nice. I like that I can be there for Drew if he needs help during the school day too.

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Primary Sidebar

About Soldier’s Wife, Crazy Life

Soldier's Wife, Crazy Life

Welcome to Soldier’s Wife, Crazy Life! I am so glad you are here.

My name is Julie and I have been an Army wife for almost 15 years now.

My husband of 18 years has served in the active-duty Army and now the Army National Guard. We have lived in Germany & Tennessee during our time as a military family.

We have three boys and have been through four deployments together.

I hope that you can find support for your own deployments, pcs moves, or anything else military life brings you 🙂

~Contact Me~

Sign up for your FREE Guide to the First 30 Days of Deployment!


Thank you!

Check your email for confirmation! 

.

Top Posts!!!

  • Why You Should Break Up With Your Military Boyfriend
  • The First Night After the Deployment is Over
  • 14 Tips to Help You Survive Basic Training When Your Spouse Joins the Military
  • How to Say Goodbye to your Spouse as they Leave for Deployment
  • To The Military Spouse Who Needs To Know They Are Not The Only Ones
  • Living in Rota, Spain
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy

Footer

Archives

Copyright © 2021 Soldier's Wife, Crazy Life on the Foodie Pro Theme

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.