{"id":9671,"date":"2016-01-04T09:55:23","date_gmt":"2016-01-04T14:55:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/?p=9671"},"modified":"2016-01-29T14:52:58","modified_gmt":"2016-01-29T19:52:58","slug":"what-if-im-just-a-mom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/2016\/01\/04\/what-if-im-just-a-mom\/","title":{"rendered":"What if I’m Just a Mom?"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the arrival of our fourth and last baby<\/a>, I’ve started to contemplate life.\u00a0 As we’ve begun our journey as our forever family<\/a>, I’m not longer contemplating if or when we’ll have more kids and what that might be like, instead I’m contemplating our future and where we might go, what we might do, who we might become.<\/p>\n

I haven’t really worked since my first daughter turned one.\u00a0 I spent her first year running between four different jobs, one as an infant\/toddler teacher at a childcare center and the other three teaching dance.\u00a0 I quit the childcare job the day before her birthday, after we found out my husband was going to be relocated to Dublin<\/a> for his job.\u00a0 I didn’t have a work permit in Ireland and we decided to add another family member when we moved back.\u00a0 I’ve applied for various jobs and gotten pretty far in some interview processes but just haven’t found that job yet that is worth it<\/a> to my family (all of which prompted me to start blogging<\/a>).<\/p>\n

I came back to the states with high hopes of returning to school, getting another degree or certificate and opening up more career opportunities for myself.\u00a0 But instead I found myself engulfed in motherhood and have only been able to teach dance on a very limited basis.<\/p>\n

I haven’t thought about it in a while, all the hopes and dreams I had.\u00a0 I hadn’t considered those degrees and opportunities I could create for myself.\u00a0 But now that the having babies part is over, and even though my children are all still very small and we are fully involved in homeschooling<\/a>, I find my mind wandering to my future.<\/p>\n

What do I want to do with my life?\u00a0 What do I hope to accomplish?\u00a0 What do I want to be?<\/p>\n

But I’m always stopped in my tracks by the realizations that are my life.\u00a0 I’m getting too old to hope to have a dance career.\u00a0 I don’t know that I will ever find a good place to teach dance in our current home.\u00a0 I’m not sure I have it in me to pursue those degrees or certificates I had such high hopes for three years ago.<\/p>\n

And it always circles back to one thought: what if all I ever am is just a mom<\/em>?<\/p>\n

I mean, we all know that moms are super important and amazing.\u00a0 It’s definitely not a small thing.<\/p>\n

But what if I’m never anything else?\u00a0 What if my days end and all people have to say about me is what a great mom I was? (At least that’s what I hope they say.)<\/p>\n

Would it really be so bad?\u00a0 Is there anything wrong with spending the rest of my life as just a mom?<\/p>\n

If I never go back to school but all my children graduate college with honors, will I still feel like just a mom?\"h<\/a><\/p>\n

If I never manage to create some great career but my children go on to change the world, even if only a tiny bit, will I still feel like just a mom?<\/p>\n

If I never do more than manage my household but my children have the confidence to take on the world, will I still feel like just a mom?\"SONY<\/a><\/p>\n

If I never make a mark on my community or world like I’ve always aspired to do but I’ve managed to raise happy, healthy, good people, will I still feel like just a mom?<\/p>\n

If no one ever knows my name outside my circle of family and friends but my children talk about me like I’m Super Woman, will I still feel like just a mom?\"super<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If I never become all I wanted to be but I can make all my children’s dreams come true, will I still feel like just a mom?<\/p>\n

Maybe being just a mom is what I was really meant to be all along.\"just<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the arrival of our fourth and last baby, I’ve started to contemplate life.\u00a0 As we’ve begun our journey as our forever family, I’m not longer contemplating if or when we’ll have more kids and what that might be like, instead I’m contemplating our future and where we might go, what we might do, who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9868,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[431,420,432],"class_list":["post-9671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-mommys-life","tag-just-a-mom","tag-mommy-life","tag-sahm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9671"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9869,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9671\/revisions\/9869"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}