I am not a stay at home mom and don’t think that I will ever be. But I guess we can’t really judge ppl through that right. Some ppl really have to stay home, because they can’t find a good nanny or a trusting child care center. So they choose to give up their career for their family and children.

However, other cases the women are just plain lazy and they just use the baby as an excuse of not working. Just plain pathetic.

I have my B.A. in psychology from an Ivy League university. I am a former intelligence analyst, and served a combat tour in Iraq. Quite frankly, being a stay-at-home mom is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, and definitely comes in first place as the most stressful. I am never off-duty, and I never get a full day off.

Is this my end-all career? No, probably not. But it’s by far the most important thing I’ve ever done, and failure at it will hurt me much more than failure at anything else I’ve ever tried.

I don’t know what your problem is with stay-at-home moms, but get over it. I know women who left careers as teachers, marine biologists, accountants, Army officers – the list goes on and on – to be stay-at-home moms. We’re not asking you to stand up and applaud our choices, but the very least you can do is respect them.

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I think you make some valid points, but I still disagree with how you worded your question.

I know of some women who have no problem saying their ‘lifestyle choice’ is their career – that’s what they want to do with the rest of their lives…or at least until the kids move out, etc. etc. Personally, I don’t call this my ‘career’ because while it’s my full-time job for now, it’s not what I see myself doing forever – I WILL have a life after my kids. Even when I was in the Army, I never thought of it as being my career, because I saw myself doing something different down the road. So, in the end, I think it depends on the person.

All that being said, I don’t think it’s right to mock (which was how your question came across, at least to me) women – or men, for that matter – who DO consider this to be their career. Granted, there aren’t exactly degrees for what we do (at least, not termed “stay at home mom studies”), but I don’t think that a diploma in a subject necessarily validates that subject as a career choice – i.e. liberal arts…who ever heard of a ‘career’ in liberal arts? Anyway.

Just out of curiousity…what spurred your question?

–noun

1. an occupation or profession, esp. one requiring special training, followed as one’s lifework

2. a person’s progress or general course of action through life or through a phase of life, as in some profession or undertaking

3. success in a profession, occupation, etc.

Here is the actual definition of career. No where in there does it state a college degree as a requirement. It states special training but that could be a multitude of things.

I think the second definition is a perfect example of why women feel they are able to use that term.

Please know that this was not written out of spite. It is written purely as an answer to your question as to why do some stay at home moms act like staying at home is a career. They act like that because by definition of the word career, it is.