Dear Dr. Laura,
I want to thank you for all you do to encourage moms to stay at home with their children. I live in a neighborhood where staying at home with your children is actually the norm, and I have to say that this is how it should be! We moms feel a religious and moral obligation to raise our own children. We take them to the park, to the library, and on walks around the neighborhood. We share ideas with each other on how to teach them to read, do chores, and not behave like wild animals. After the birth of my 4th child, the other moms brought meals in. One mom called and asked to have my 4 year old over for an hour or two so I could take a nap while my 2 year old and newborn were sleeping! We help each other with the challenges of being stay-at-home moms, and find sanity in sharing our failures and successes.
Dr. Laura, our homes are older and humble. We sit on hand-me-down couches. There are no flat screen T.V.'s, exotic vacations, or elaborate birthday parties with store-bought cakes and hired clowns . . . and yet, we're happy.
We have moments of wanting more, of wondering why we spent all those years earning college degrees, of feeling like underappreciated maids. But then we look into our children's faces and know we could never turn the raising of them over to a stranger.
If more families were willing to sacrifice to have the mother stay at home with her children, people everywhere would discover that priceless feeling of things being exactly as they should be!
M.
