What's your occupation?

[TRex]

I'm 22 and I'm a stay at home mum and I feel inferior reading everyone's comments.
Look at you all, achieving things with your lives.

I think that is wonderful!!! I think it a shame so many children are being raised by day care people who simply cannot have a parent's love for all their charges. (I know many parents don't have a choice.) I certainly don't think you should feel inferior!

[Morbius]

You shouldn't feel inferior, IM.  Parenthood is a pretty important job.  You're a pretty decent Chi player, too!  It's also great to see a young person playing the game.  I sometimes think it's just oldies!

[ensiform]

I'm 22 and I'm a stay at home mum and I feel inferior reading everyone's comments.
Look at you all, achieving things with your lives.

One, parenthood is an achievement in itself - as long as you take it seriously and work hard at raising kids who are good people.

Two, I personally never accomplished anything worth talking about until I was about 35, and that's only true if you think being a private elementary school teacher is worth talking about.

[TRex]

It's also great to see a young person playing the game.  I sometimes think it's just oldies!

I resemble that remark!

[a non-amos]

IM, I must join the throng disagreeing with you.  I, too, believe you have one of the most important jobs, ever.

All too often this job is underappreciated.

[ada]

Iron Maiden, your young life is merely on hold for a while. It probably is very frustrating now to
read of everyone's achievements, but most of us are way older than you.
You know the time will come when your children are older when you can/will resume a career
if you want to. It will happen.
In the last couple of decades we have had huge numbers of middle-aged women start nursing
at university.  The other university students complained about how these nurses did not join
in student activities, and "they only go to their lectures or the library, and lots of them
have grey hair." 
Of course these women had families and responsible lives outside, so couldn't just mess around
at uni having fun as well, even if they had wanted to.  It is a different way of doing university.

'Iron Maiden' is your chosen name.  This suggest you really have the grit to do something later. 
I wonder how many other young people are playing Chihuahua, where age and experience are
definitely an advantage.    ADA 

[bobbi]

Omigosh IM, stay at home mum is a tough job!

I'm sure you have seen that internet joke where a man comes home to find his house and family in the most chaotic of circumstances. He finds his wife lying in bed reading a novel and when he questions her, she responds that all the things she does everyday - well today she didn't.

I went back to university in my 50th year. I completed a Bachelor of Health Science in Occupational Therapy, and now I am doing post graduate research. Raising my daughters who are in their mid- late 20s now, was a whole heap harder!

[cb]

I'm 22 and I'm a stay at home mum and I feel inferior reading everyone's comments.
Look at you all, achieving things with your lives.

You are doing one of the most important and significant jobs on the planet.  And one I did too, when my two were small.  Then I went back to work (and indeed, started a whole new career) once they were at school.  You have many many years ahead of you to do many more things - but don't downplay what you are doing now - value it, and enjoy it.  They are never small again (mum of a 17yo and 20yo).

[rogue_mother]

Iron Maiden, your young life is merely on hold for a while. 

No! I vigorously disagree with this statement. IM, your life is NOT on hold. This IS your life, and what you are doing is wonderful and important. I left a satisfying job as a computer programmer to be a stay-at-home mom for the two Rogue daughters and never, ever felt that my life was on hold or that what I was doing was in any way inferior to what anyone else was doing. I did not resume work for pay until the younger Rogue daughter was out of high school. This left me free to be a chaperone at every opportunity and to drop what I was doing at any moment if something went awry at school. I never regretted one second of it. And although Rogue Father had encouraged me to go back to work when the Rogue daughters were both in grade school, he later told me that he was glad that I hadn't. He had come to realize that adolescents could also benefit from parental supervision and availability. There is no better "daycare provider" than one's own loving parent, paid or not.

[Linda]

I stayed at home to look after my son and only embarked on part time work once he was in his early teens.  I don't regret my decision for one minute.  Iron Maiden you have achieved the role of being a mother at a young age - be proud of yourself!  It is the most important "job" you will ever have!

[TRex]

There is no better "daycare provider" than one's own loving parent, paid or not.

Quite so.

[IronMaiden]

Wow thank you for the replies
You're a nice bunch

[TRex]

An additional thought: when I was a lot younger, I thought I'd accomplish all sorts of great things (I think a lot of young people think that), but as I got older I realised even the 'big' things done at work — things which earn awards and recognition — will be forgotten relatively quickly. Very, very few of us will leave a mark in the history books of the future; our most lasting legacy will be with our children and grandchildren.

[Tom]

I recently attended the funeral of an 90year old grandmother. By worldly standards a most ordinary, unexceptional lady. A stay-at-home mum, a stay-at-home grandma, never went out to work. The eulogies that flowed for this lady were remarkable. Always there for her three daughters, all of whom have grown to be fine people and wonderful, but quiet contributors to life. The most moving eulogy was from her 23yo graddaughter who remembered a granny who was always there for her, her door ever open to her and her friends, as indeed it had been for he daughters' friends (I was one of those). What struck me in all of this was that this wonderful 'ordinary' lady was, in all her quiet ordinariness, a most special, indeed extraordinary, lady. We can have a tendency to measure success in terms of our impact on the wider society, our fame, our business acumen, our sporting prowess, our celebrity etc., but I have discovered that most of the world comprises 'ordinary' people doing very special things in a quiet but ultimately deeply meaningful manner. I applaud you Iron Maiden. You have chosen a most excellent course.

[Maudland]

But Iron Maiden might be a terrible mother! (Not saying you are - hope you'll understand what I mean. It's just getting a bit evangelical.) The way I see it, whether you're a president or a mother doesn't make you a better or worse person. You just spend your time differently! It's thinking it does that makes people feel inferior - easy to do when success seems to be judged by what we have rather than who we are. We all make choices, and it's up to us to make the best of them. We can all contribute to the world in a small or big, loud or quiet way, especially if whatever we do, we do it with kindness and sincerity... Someone (Churchill?) once said something along the lines of, what matters is not how you make a living, but how you make a life. Believe in what you do and be happy!