Happy Mother's Day
I have been impressed to start blogging again for some time now. I figured today is a great time to start! Happy Mother's Day and welcome to my world!
Who am I and why do I want to blog again? I actually started "blogging" many, many moons ago with my BFF/prayer partner, T, whose blog is Dirt Road, way back in the "olden" days when the word "blog" was not yet in the spell-check system!!! I guess when everyone else jumped on the blogging bandwagon, I decided to take a break. I am not much of a mainstream conformist, but rather want my words to matter. I really want to use my gift of writing to encourage and inspire others. So here I am...again!
In the past, I used my blog Black-Board to share little "life lessons" that I learned along the way...some were cute and some were hard, very hard. Feel free to go back and read...one of my favorite blogs was Taste the Beaters. This time, my approach will be a realistic look into the life of someone whose responsibility is "Head of Household". You will still find me being real with you: positive, kind and caring, yet sharing the difficulties and at times, raw emotion of someone who has been "Head of Household" for almost 14 years, raising two teenage boys by myself.
It took a little time to discover my new purpose in blogging, but after raking 99 piles of gumballs in my backyard, I got my inspiration! And after taking myself out for a movie Friday night to see "Mom's Night Out", I got today's title inspiration. I don't want to be another "mommy blogger"...or a "single woman" blogger, as we have plenty of those already. I want to inspire AND challenge mothers in different roles to appreciate what we do, where we are and how well we can do our jobs! Having been a stay-at-home mom, a working mom and a full-time working single mom, I hope to share insight into what it is like to be the "Head of Household" and how we can support each other! Because, yes, "our job (as a mom) is hard...AND important"!
Let's start with Head of Household. What exactly does that mean? According to the IRS, Head of Household is defined as meeting ALL of these requirements:
- You are unmarried or considered unmarried on the last day of the year.
- You paid more than half the cost of keeping up a home for the year.
- A qualifying person lived with you in the home for more than half the year (except for temporary absences, such as school).
How about that? We single moms get our own tax filing status! We should realize then just how special and unique our role is as mother, homemaker and income provider! You are unmarried--shouldering ALL of life's responsibility alone. You pay for keeping up a home--more than just paying the mortgage. A qualifying person lived with you--requires providing physical needs, such as food and clothes, and emotional needs for your dependents. Take a moment to give yourself a hand for managing THREE FULL-TIME JOBS!!!
Yes, I can already hear my readers saying, "but what about the Stay-at-Home Moms? We don't even get paid and we work 24/7?" I am glad you asked and here is what I have been inspired to share with Stay-at-home-moms. What I have to share is so profound that I hope you sit down to hear it...
You are blessed among the few!!! Be grateful that you get to enjoy a clean home, able to make a home-cooked meal, spend more time with your kids, even help out at their school or run immediately and pick them up when they get sick at school...AND that you have a husband that provides the income to allow for you to manage your home 24/7! I am thrilled for you!
We also have the Working Moms, who are caught in the balancing act of caring for their family and home along with a job outside the home. Sometimes, this is a more difficult position to manage, because with both spouses working, it would only seem fair to split up the housework, right? Shared income responsibilities = shared housework responsibilities. More often than not, it still lies upon the mom's shoulders to care for all of the home, when typically the husband wants to come home and unwind, but does mom get to do the same? And sometimes, when the financial need requires both parents to work, it doesn't really pay off that much after daycare expenses, eating out, etc. My hat is off to you!
What I desire each of us to realize, that no matter where we are in life, we will remember Paul's advice in Philippians 4:11, "...for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content." Let's not compare ourselves to one another. It does not do us any good in our own life. Sure, sometimes, we wish we could trade places with someone else. (I really want to do a Job Swap show where a stay-at-home mom trades places with a single-working mom!) But I think if we were to all lay our "stuff" out on a table with each other, we would still choose to pick up our own "stuff" again. It saddens me when I read posts on FB always complaining about how busy they are, or complaining about their husbands or children. Like James reminds us in James 1:2, "Count it all joy...when you meet trials of various kinds.", let's be mindful of all that we have and are blessed!!
Let us pray for our stay-at-home mom friends. It may seem like they have it made by being at home with their families. We don't know, but they may be caring for a special needs child or an ailing husband. They need our support to encourage them to keep on doing a great job!
Let us pray for our working mom friends. It may seem like they have it made with a two-income household. We don't know, but their financial needs may give them no choice to be a stay-at-home mom. They need our support to encourage them take one day at a time.
Let us pray for our single mom friends. It may seem like they have it made because they get to make their own decisions. We don't know, but they may have just lost their husband or they having a tough time raising teenagers. They need our support to encourage them to fight the good fight!
Sooo...I am not another mommy blogger...I will blog about real life...life as the Head of Household! It won't be a blog from the quiet view of the backporch with a cup of coffee, but rather a blog from the suburbs with 5 lanes of traffic in rush hour! I hope you stay along for the ride!
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