Being a mother changes everything

I created this blog for mothers in 2006, 2 years after my first blog.

I had a hard time breastfeeding my children so my initial posts were filled with stories about my breastfeeding journey. Later on this blog followed my motherhood journey from the time my babies were newborns to toddler hood, preschoolers and now they are in grade school. Time flies so quickly. The children grow up so fast.

I have written all about their toilet training, training them to sleep, teething, when the babies were sick and many many more things that a mother would go through and understand.

I received emails from other mothers going through the same thing. Some of them were to share, some were reaching out so that they too as mothers would not feel alone and lost in their motherhood journey. This is one of my most loved blogs.

Recently I started a Breastfeeding Stories Category on my Mothering Times blog for Mothers. I wanted to reach out to all mothers who have trouble breastfeeding. I hope that these mothers will be inspired and encouraged to carry on despite the difficulties.

I would like to extend an invitation to all breastfeeding mothers who wish to contribute an article or their breastfeeding story to be featured on my blog. You can find the articles submission rules here - Breastfeeding Stories

I have often heard this question being asked, yet the opposite is true. I am that I am discovering myself as a mother. I am learning for the first time what sort of person I can be for example how hard I persevered when I was breastfeeding and how strong I had to be when the kids were ill. I am discovering that I can be a strong person when it is needed because a mother has to be strong.

I am learning with the kids as I teach them. I am relearning the things that I have been taught.

I have not lost myself. I have discovered my new self. I have learned that I am a stronger person than I thought I knew and I am evolving into this new and better person called MOTHER.

I am a Stay At Home Mom for 10 years now. Stay At Home Mom is the preferred term to housewife these days. I totally agree with that. After all, I am not a wife to my house. However, I did choose to Stay At Home from the time my child was born so I am a Stay At Home Mom rather than a housewife.

I am a Stay At Home Mom but does that mean that I am rotting at home? Certainly not! Thank goodness for technology and the internet, I have realized my dream instead. I have always wanted to write. I am a taciturn person but give me a pen or a keyboard and all the words locked up inside me flow out easily. My writing journey began because of my children. I had difficulty breastfeeding my kids so I started a Geocities page on breastfeeding. Geocities by Yahoo is no longer around so I have moved some of my original breastfeeding stories to my blog instead.

One thing led to another. From a static webpage, I moved on to blogging on one blog, then another and another. Now I have 5 blogs. That meant that I had to be actively involved in Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, LinkedIn and Pininterest to maintain my blogs! That is such a lot of work. I do not have time to rot! I have also recently started writing articles on Squidoo. Squidoo is a popular free platform for creating single webpages of your interests and recommendations.

Before I knew it, I have been writing online for 8 years! Sometimes I receive emails from other mothers who are afraid to make the switch from being a working mother to being a stay at home one. "Aren't you afraid to sacrifice so much?" they ask me. I tell them that it is not a 'sacrifice' to stay at home and look after your kids if that is what you want. Do it only if it is what YOU want. "Don't you feel bored staying at home all day everyday?" is another question I often receive. I hardly have time to be bored. When the kids were little they required a lot of my attention and I was happy to spend that precious time with them. Now that they are at school for half a day, I hardly have enough time to do all the things that I want to do!

There are plenty of things a SAHM can do.You can bake or sew, make crafts or take photographs. I chose to write instead. Recently, I realized my dream of becoming a writer by self publishing my books online. I also have an online shop on CafePress. It is called Stuff For Moms. I sell T-shirts, mugs, and other personalized iPhone or iPad covers etc, personalized with my own designs that is. I design mostly items with funny quotes for mothers on them. My books and stuff on Cafepress are POD (Print On Demand). That means I do not have to come up with any capital. The books or items will be printed and shipped to the customer whenever they order and I do not have to handle any of those details. It is surprisingly easy to publish a book or set up shop online. You can do it on your own without any help.

So does Stay At Home mean Rot At Home? No, certainly not for me. In fact, I wake up each day eager to write another article or design another new item. I hope that by writing this article, other moms won't fear the Stay At Home Mom or Housewife title so much. It can be the start of your dreams. It was the start of mine.