"It's your JOB to clean!"

Okay, so if you read my last blog, you know that I have my 13 yea old step daughter here for a while. As a matter of fact, this is the last week. Well, a few days ago, after doing a lot of running around buying school clothes for the boys and looking for things she might want, we came home and sat down. Well, of course, she went straight for the phone, as most teens do. So I asked her does she so anything other than talk on the phone, like clean up something. She said, laughing, "Nope, you're the housewife. It's your job to clean!"

Okay, I have to say how this really felt like a stab to the gut. I guess first it's the idea that I really don't want to be where I am. I really do want to do things for me. I want a career and life of my own, outside of being a mom and an Army Spouse.

Then, I think it bothered me because I realized that that really is the way that she sees me. As nothing more than a housewife, and that to her, that's NOTHING. Her mom works as a supervisor at some plant, works long hours and, for her area, makes really good money. She's proud of her mom, but me she considers nothing more than a housewife.

Coming from a teenager it hurt because I never wanted this for myself. And although I know she doesn't understand the situation of why I do what I do, why I stay at home and raise my children rather than leave them for someone else to raise, why I haven't gotten a career going of my own, why right now it is more financially suitable that I stay at home, the comment still bothered me to no end, and sent me into a world of thoughts about what I want to be when I grow up.