Mom of the Month: Irene

It seemed only fitting that I asked my own mom to guest post for Mother's Day weekend. Irene is a mother to three girls, two son in-laws, and two grandchildren. She has spent her entire life sacrificing so much for them and supporting them (and her husband) through thick and thin.

So, here is Irene's blog post!

Mom Enough

Let me begin with saying that the picture on the cover of Time Magazine doesn’t capture attachment parenting. It is meant to shock people and give an adverse impression of couples who have embraced this philosophy of parenting. (Time Magazine's "Are You Mom Enough?")

But…

I want to know where it happened on the timeline of history that what was intended became a perversion. When did breastfeeding, God’s perfect design for feeding our children, become a cultural taboo and some kind of erotica? When did it become okay for celebrities to pose nude on the cover of any magazine that is displayed at the checkout lines of retailers but it’s not okay for a mother to breastfeed in public? When did it become okay for women to become sex objects and glorified for their bodies but it’s not okay for them to be honored for being mothers? When did we start exalting the women who made the choice to go to work while criticizing the women who chose to stay at home?

Two of my daughters are mothers. Both have college degrees, one has a postgraduate degree and intends on beginning work on a Ph.D. The other is a writer and an entrepreneur. But they have chosen to stay home with their babies for now. They are SAHMs. The new acronym – SAHM – Stay At Home Mom. They are happy with their rich lives, full of couponing and saving for this or that, loving their husbands and babies. They drive used cars. Yes, they breastfeed, use baby pouchs, co-sleep, and make their own baby food. They are blessed to have husbands who support them. Shocking revelation: they were raised that way.

They have no desire to become rich. Their goals in life aren’t to make more money, accumulate more junk, or live in a bigger house someday. They want to raise children who have a moral center, who love God, who realize that happiness is joy, not the ultimate goal in life, but the produce of a life built on the rock of faith.

American society is about to run off a cliff into an abyss it’s not ready for. It is careening ahead, like some mammoth monster rolling down a mountain toward a bottomless gorge, gaining speed, crushing whatever lies in its path as it does. These SAHMs, these Stay At Home Moms, are made of some kind of heavenly steel, because they scream, “Stop!” at this monster. “Stop! Because it’s feedin’ time!” And this society stops and clicks its tongue and makes what is right wrong and wrong right. The children in the slings who nurse next to their mothers’ hearts and feel the warmth of her skin don’t see the monster, because they nuzzle near to the heart of Him who will help them walk tall and strong. They will need that strength that transfers from loving and just parents to a loving and just God.

You go girls. SAHMs. Proud of you. Happy Mother’s Day!

(L to R: Tim, Katie, Irene, Mike, Molly, Emily, and Clark.)

Irene's blog is currently under construction, but for a taste of her writing visit : Renaissance Woman.)