Stepford Wife?

I am a stay at home...wife. The ‘mom’ part is still pending. It wasn’t my plan to stay at home and, well, clean. At 22years old, I was the youngest vet ever to register in Jamaica at that time. My next move was to work and get financially settled, then get married and continue working. I did plan to make the unorthodox, radical move of staying at home when I got pregnant (didn’t want to take the risk of getting needle pricked with some drug that could harm my baby). This was not the norm around me, but I thought it would be the best thing for my children. But here I am...no children born yet, but I’m still at home. Initially, it was my immigration status that prevented me from working, and I gladly took up my ‘role’ of ensuring that when my husband came home from a hard day’s work, he would also see that I did a hard day’s work too: immaculate house, home cooked meal, etc. That ideal slowly dwindled as I lost interest in sparkly floors. I was bored. Was this really what God intended? Ironically, my work permit arrived right when morning sickness kicked in to full swing, and all of a sudden, I was grateful to be home, to throw up freely whenever I needed to and not have to ask some boss for a sick day. And since I always wanted to stay at home with my children, I decided to not bother to look for a job at this point.

It’s easy to trust God and go along with His commands when we can reason it out. But what’s the reasoning behind me, the doctor, being made to change diapers? Am I not over-qualified for that job? The more I read mummy blogs, the more fascinated I am by the many women that feel so much more fulfilled in taking care of their children than they ever imagined. All these feminists that dreaded their 3 month maternity leave ended up quitting their jobs, not seeing any justification to be away from their babies. Is there something innate in us women that makes us perfect for the job after all?
God created Adam to protect and provide. It comes naturally for a man to want to work. (The rest are just lazy). In a culture where money means power, the women started to feel inferior and decided they wanted what the men had (reminds me of a little story in Genesis)...so they abandoned their homes and their children. The downward spiral of morality followed. Isn’t that always what happens when we decide that our way makes more sense than God’s?
What was woman made for? Milk producing breasts give us a hint...and also my growing abdomen.

The fact is a man, with formula in hand, can do everything a mother can to nourish a child, and a woman can go out and easily bring home the bacon. Facts don’t always represent the truth (any episode of law and order will prove that point). I will admit that I am yet to figure out why the roles were not made interchangeable by God when He gave them to us, even though He knew we women could work just as well and often better than men, etc.
I think we women need to learn to value what we do. We not only physically grow children, but consider that the wonderful characters and sharp minds in all those successful men were probably cultivated in them during those early years spent with their mothers. (Studies show that who you are is basically cemented by the time you turn 5) This is a serious job! I am deciding what type of human being my child will be and the impact he/she will have on the world. Well, of course I need to be University trained for this! And just to tease the men; The one that ‘helps’ you to do something obviously already has the knowledge and skill to do it :P
Maybe we need to get back to the Bible. Money and the making of it is not what makes a man superior. We were made equally with complementary roles. We’ll never accept and function well in our roles if we keep looking down on it. When we realise how important it is, then we’ll begin to enjoy it. We’ll have much better self esteem and we’ll begin to understand the good that God had planned all along.
Until then, are we willing to love God by obeying His commandments even when we don’t think they make any sense? Doesn’t it boil down to the fact that He’s the creator and even if we don’t know why the little tiny part has to be in a particular place, we still put it there cause that’s what the installation manual said?
VM