STAY-AT-HOME MOM AND 21ST CENTURY WOMAN

Stay-at-home mom or 21 Century woman? As a child, I hated the words stay-at-home mom because they were associated with an abused woman, born and bred to clean, cook, raise the children, take care of her husband and the household, and… and that’s about it.

She was not allowed to go out with her friends; she could not get pampered or do anything. She was often verbally and/or physically abused, and she would take it for the children’s sake.

So I decided that I did not want to be a stay-at-home mom; I do not need a man to take care of me; I am and will always be strong and independent.

I am a 21st Century woman. That was such a strange concept for the women in my family. They were looking at each other, not knowing how to help me understand that it would not be as I wanted it to be because ‘that’s what you’re supposed to do.’

Truth is, the world is what we make it to be. So I rebelled against everyone who told me that I needed to learn how to cook and take care of a house because I am a woman. So I refused to learn everything they wanted me to.

The men in my family were giving different advice, the uncle who raised me, in particular. He said that I would be a woman who won’t let a man dictate what I would do, and who would I be. He said that I should work to be financially independent and free and to not take any bull***t from anyone.

MY PARTNER

My partner is cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, taking the dog out, cleaning the kitten’s litter, taking our daughters out, playing with them even after he comes home from work, all exhausted. I am so proud of him for being the person that he is, not because he does all of these things; I am praising him because he does not find it weird or out of place to do them.

He wants to be as present as possible in our children’s lives (that includes the cat and the dog), and I couldn’t be prouder to be side by side with this man. Hear that? Side by side, nobody is behind; we lead together, cook together, clean together, we do it all together.

I have the world at my feet because I can do everything I want. Sure, there’s still plenty of misogyny in the world, but we are evolving. The world is growing every time we teach a girl that she is not just pretty; she is intelligent, strong, powerful, resilient, independent, capable,  fast, all the adjectives one would give to a boy.

21 CENTURY WOMAN. WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

 

• I can put on my makeup to take a picture in my backyard.

• I can change my hair color to pink because I’m bored.
• My daughters will be taught that they have the world in their palms.
• I can go and do my nails because I feel like doing so.
• I am a 21st Century woman: proud, strong, invincible, and so are you.