Stay-at-Home Mothers

               Families, communities, and nations are strengthened when mothers invest their time with their children. Are you a stay-at-home mother? Are you happy with your choice? If you are a happy stay-at-home mother, you are among the majority.

                Redbook Magazine surveyed 558 stay-at-home mothers and “asked several questions about their lives and responsibilities.” The magazine also requested an “hour by hour” record of their activities for the previous day. The records showed “incredibly diverse” lives and revealed “surprising truths about modern families.”

                “Stay-at-home moms’ happiness factor was another counterintuitive finding. In general, this was a very content group of 558 survey respondents, with one standout: Moms of four or more showed an outsized proclivity to be `very’ or `extremely’ happy. This was true despite the constant activity four or more children create and these families’ lower-than-average incomes.”

                I know a lot of stay-at-home mothers of four or more children. I am the mother of six and the grandmother of seventeen. I know that stay-at-home mothers rarely stay at home all day because they are enriching the lives of the members of their families. Their children have the opportunity to visit the library, go to movies, take hikes, see their mothers volunteering in their schools, go swimming in the lake, and many other activities. Children of mothers who stay at home are very blessed.

                LDS Living summarized the study and ended with this statement: “So, when all is said and done and the research is examined, we should ask ourselves, just as Neal A. Maxwell did, `When the real history of mankind is fully disclosed, will it feature the echoes of gunfire or the shaping sound of lullabies? The great armistices made by military men or the peacemaking of women in homes and in neighborhoods? Will what happened in cradles and kitchens prove to be more controlling than what happened in congresses?’"

                The value of having a mother who chooses to invest her time and energy in her children is rarely seen at the moment of the sacrifice. It is seen in the lives of those children when they become parents. I am very pleased to know that all of my daughters, by blood and by marriage, are stay-at-home mothers. Most of them have four children and are very busy. All of them have college degrees, and most of them have graduate degrees. I have one daughter who has no children – not of her choice. She is a successful, well-known business executive who believes that a day-at-home mother has the best career possible. I am happy in my choice of a career and know that my daughters are happy in their choice to be at home with their children. I hope you are happy in your choice to be home with your children because you can strengthen your family, your community, and your nation by investing your time with your children.