I remember the first time someone asked me how long I had dated my husband before we got married. When I honestly answered "three weeks" her jaw hit the floor and after a semi awkward moment she blurted out "are you happy?!".
I've been at home for, oh, about five months now. And I get a lot of the same response when people ask what I do.
Random stranger/person at church/ party/ grocery store: "So what do you do?"
Me: "Oh, I stay at home."
Random person: "Doesn't that suck? Aren't you bored? What do you even do all day?"
It kills me. Honestly. It kills me a little inside because hello. It is 2015- staying home is a choice very few women still make. A choice. I choose to stay home and it is a choice that lucky for me, my husband supports and we can afford. But it is still a choice.
If I wasn't happy I wouldn't be here. Just like when that girl at that party asked me how I was possibly happy married to my husband. I choose to stay because I'm happy.
Are there days when I have a million and one adult responsibilities that I have to deal with simply because I am the one at home? Oh yeah. Do I sit down and just want to cry at the end of those days? Yeah, sometimes. Does the house stay ridiculously clean and laundry manageable? Not always. Is it worth it? You bet.
People seem surprised that I chose to stay home before our first baby was born. That wasn't a complete choice, I'll give you that. Even though we had decided to start a family we were a little caught off guard by the timing when I actually turned up pregnant and were surprised again when morning sickness hit me so hard that I simply couldn't reconcile with the idea of going to work after we moved. But it was a direction we were headed anyway- there was no way I was not staying home with my baby when the baby finally did come. So here we are.
I love that I get to stay home now. And I know that even though there will be hard days after the baby comes that I will probably long to go into a "real job" but I also know that my heart wants to be home.
So to all the people who want to ask me if I really am happy, yeah. I am. I really am.
