Why I admire stay-at-home mums

If there is one life I admire but have no guts to jump into, it is the life of a stay-at -home mum.

I mean there are life-changing precious moments we career women will never experience, but it is an everyday experience for these gifted mums.

Here is why I admire this noble path:

Witnessing a child’s milestones

I remember my four-year-old daughter Tasha started walking at ten months while I was at work.

“Mtoto alianza kutembea leo,” (The baby walked today) blurted my then house girl when I arrived from work at around 9pm on that day. By that time, the baby was already asleep and I was tempted to wake her up, just to give her congratulatory hugs and kisses. These are precious moments stay-at-home moms are present to witness and record.

Story telling moments

Most career mothers with school going kids, have enrolled them on school transport to save mummy the hassle of dropping and picking the minor up on a daily basis. But the catch here is that we always miss the ‘mummy-this-mummy that’ stories kids have from school that are best told when baby has just been picked from school. When I ask my daughter how school was when I arrive from work at around 8pm, she only says, “fine”. By that time, the excitement has died off and she has probably forgotten what transpired at school. But a friend who is a stay-at-home tells me that whenever she goes to pick her daughter, the little one always bombards her with stories about what happened even before she asks.

Arresting issues in time

Busy and crazy as my schedule is, I made sure I taught Tasha proper toilet usage by the time she was two years. I wanted to save teachers the trouble when she started school at three. So you can imagine my shock when one day I found soiled school pants soaked in water in the bathroom. When I inquired from the house girl, I got some lame answer “Tasha siku hizi anajipupulia tu?” (Tasha nowadays just soils her school uniform)“And where was I all that time? And why wasn’t I ever told? I wondered. If I were at home most of the time, it would never have gotten this bad.

There are just but a few of the many juicy moments we miss out as working moms. That is why one day when I gather sufficient courage — God knows when — I would want to be a stay-at-home mum