It's Happening...

Just a few short weeks into my SAHM adventure, I wrote about Dr. Laura, and my thoughts on her Today Show appearance to tout her new book, In Praise of Stay At Home Moms. In that post I said "Dr. Laura went on to use terms including “denigrated” “not supported” “made to feel stupid”…and that there “isn’t much in society that says what you are doing is wonderful”. Maybe I’ve just been really lucky—I haven’t run into any of this. In fact, my experience has been quite the opposite... In fact every single person that has made a comment on our decision has made a positive comment."

That was then. This is now.

It's been a wonderfully adventurous summer here in Tatiman-land. Full of challenges for the Tatiman. Learning to walk-Check. Learning to say "please"-Check. Learning to 'baaaa' like a sheep-almost there (Tatiman says 'daaaaa'...like a dyslexic sheep). Full of challenges for the mommy, too. Taking the Tatiman on a cross country flight-Check. Attempting to get back in shape-Check minus. Feeling totally comfortable in my SAHM role-RUH ROH RORGE.

I'll admit it--my pride has had a few dents and dings as of late. The first came while on our trip to California to celebrate my college roommate's birthday. It was my first time meeting new people in a 'professional' (read: non play group) setting. Of course everybody exchanged the usual niceties: "What's your name?" "Where ya from?"...those were easy enough. And then the never before, but now kind of dreaded "What do you do?" Gulp. This group of 30-somethings was filled with high achievers. Consultants. Educators. Executives. Engineers. Computer Geeks. And one lowly SAHM. It was, for sure, a conversation ender. I wanted to scream "...but I used to be an attorney" on more than one occasion. I wanted to stamp "...but I'm still cool to talk to" on my forehead. I wanted...to crawl into a little hole.

The second ding, and my inspiration to come back to my blog, was a little newspaper article I was interviewed for. The article mentioned how I left my law firm to stay at home with my son (among other things, which are neither here nor there). On the newspaper's website, strangers made all sorts of comments--that I know I shouldn't get fired up about--but I'm not just a SAHM, I'm a Mama Bear now, too. What really burns me is that people assume that I am in my situation because I could not hack it as an attorney--or because I took the easy way out of the workforce. How denigrating.

And, I'm not even sure why. I am so in love with my job, that I sometimes find myself tearing up when I think about how lucky I am. I was there when my son took his first steps. I was there to snuggle him when he got his first black eye, followed by bruised forehead, fat lip, and scraped nose (nobody said learning to walk is easy). I am proud of the person he is becoming, and heck, I may even take a bit of the credit for it. But, it does sting a little bit when I know that I haven't changed, but others' perception of me has.

In line for a taco at my former college roomie's blowout Bday party, I struck up a conversation with the party-goer behind me. We followed the proper introduction etiquette, but I got to go first. And when I got to the "What do you do?" part...she gulped, shifted her weight back and forth...and then squeaked out, "I'm an artist." I got so excited...tons of questions filled my head (what kind of art? do you have a studio? what inspires you...etc etc etc) and then she continued "...it's kind of embarrassing."

WHAT? Embarrassing? You create beauty in the world around you. You make people smile or laugh or cry through your work. You found something you love and you had the guts to turn it into your career.

Touche.