Being a stay at home mom is hard and finding purpose as a stay at home mom is a struggle only a stay at home mom can fully understand. So, let’s talk about how to be happy as a mom and find purpose in every day.
This post is all about helping you start finding purpose as a stay at home mom so that you can start enjoying your days at home with your kids
This post may contain affiliate links.
Finding Purpose as a Stay at Home Mom
Wake up, feed the kids breakfast, play, do dishes, lunch time, play time, nap time, clean up, dinner, bedtime…..wake up and do it again. Sometimes (maybe a lot of the time) being a stay at home mom feels mundane and repetitive. But even those mundane tasks have tremendous purpose too.
As a mom, there is truly nothing you do that is “unimportant” or “trivial.”
Remember the impact your parents made
If you think back to your childhood, everything your parents did had an impact on you, even if you didn’t realize it until later on. The cleaning, the laundry, the dishes, the long talks, the dinners, etc…everything had either a positive or a negative impact on you. If they did it well, you have an example to go by. If they did it poorly, then you now know how that affected you as a kid and you know that doing it better is worth the effort.
Remember you are their example
You mentor your kids on how to live every single day simply by the way you go about your day. Holding the door for someone at the store inspires them to do so too. The words you speak to and about other people, will become the words they use too. Having a kid is the fastest way to figure out what words you need to stop using, whether they be bad words or maybe just overused ones. I never realized before kids how much I said “gotcha” and “makes sense,” but I sure do now.
You’re now a teacher
Whether or not you choose to homeschool your kids, you will be teaching them letters, numbers, the names of things, and just how life works in general. They will learn to talk simply by being around you. The bigger your vocabulary is, the bigger theirs is too. When you became a mom, you became a teacher too, whether you meant to or not. That is no small thing.
You’re their counselor
Watching you deal with hurt, fear, sadness, happiness, joy, anger, and everything else in between is how your kids will learn to deal with it too. They will watch the ways you celebrate with others, the way you work through disappointments, the way you work through anger with others, and the way you cope with hurt. Teaching them to navigate their emotions well is something that will help them all through life.
You help determine their relationship with food
The way you see and talk about food will translate to your kids. If you call a food “bad” or “good” you’ll quickly hear them saying the same about other foods. So, instead of calling things good or bad, explain the nutritional value or proteins, fats, carbs, vitamins, minerals, etc. and help your kids learn the value or moderation. Start them seeing food in a healthy way so they can have a healthy relationship with food, rather than being afraid of it or overly indulgent.
You get to introduce them to the beauty of nature
For some people loving nature is just a part of who they are. For others, it’s learned through growing up in nature. I had the privilege of growing up with a huge backyard, woods, and a creek to play in as a kid and we rarely played inside. So, while I don’t have a huge yard, woods, or a creek for my kids to play in right now, I still want them to learn to love being outside. We love hikes, parks, and lots and lots of hours in our sand box. We also recently got an outdoor kids tent that looks super cute on our porch.
And if you are up for a true challenge when it comes to getting your kids outside, try the 1000 hours challenge. It’s 1000 hours outside in a calendar year. We are in the middle of ours right now and it’s been pushing us a ton this year. It can be eye opening when we get in a funk and forget to get outside.
Spend uninterrupted time with your kids every day
The days where I am overwhelmed and hyper focused on household tasks and forget to play with my kids, can quickly become days I feel like I didn’t get enough done. Setting aside time to play with my kids quickly reminds me why I am a stay at home mom and just how much purpose there is in every day as a stay at home mom. Plus, it also leaves your kids feeling connected to you and less likely to ask to play every two seconds when you really do have something that has to get done.
Mama bear is more than just a saying
While many people use mama bear as a sort of joke, it really should be the truth. You are your kids’ protectors. You are the final line of defense for them against the craziness of the world. As moms, we have to be watching everything and prepared for everything. That is a high calling and highly purposeful.
Find community instead of comparison
Some moms are good at cooking every meal from scratch while others are insanely athletic dedicated soccer moms. Then there’s the fashion forward moms and the side-hustling moms. Moms are insanely talented at tons of things, but no mom is good at everything. So, don’t compare to any other mom. Learn from other moms instead of finding insecurity in what they do well. The beauty is that finding community with tons of different talents, means that together you can do it all.
God gave your kids to you specifically
Your kids are yours for a reason. Every mom has different skills and loves in different ways. Your kids were given to you because you have what they need.
This post was all about how to start finding purpose as a stay at home mom even in the most mundane things. I know being a stay at home mom is hard in ways no one but a stay at home mom can understand. So, I am here to tell you that you matter and you have purpose beyond what you can see right now. You matter mama…so much more than you know.
-Beautifully Busy Mom
