s/o Did/does your Mom have a career?

My mom was a secretary at the high school vocational center. She also drove bus and was a waitress. I think she really enjoyed all her jobs.

She’s a teacher but was at SAHM for a long time.

My mom always worked even when my brother and I were young kids. She’s had a bunch of different careers and even owned her own business at one time. She’s been at her current company for 20 years and has always encouraged me to work and keep a safety net for myself.

No, she did some odd jobs throughout my life but didn’t have a degree or a career.

My mom had been a stay at home mom for years. When I was 11, I kept getting sick over and over again with strep. They finally took my tonsils out. But during that time, I had a lot of time at home with my mom while my brother and sister were in school. I did not even remember this conversation until my mom told me about it as a grown up. But I made a comment to her about how I thought her life was so boring. That there was no way I was ever going to be a sahm when I got older because I couldn't imagine my life being all about cooking, cleaning, laundry, and soap operas.

Well apparently that comment really struck a chord with her. I didn't realize either at that time that my dad was very tight with money. And she had a weekly grocery budget and a weekly allowance. He controlled everything.

She went out and got a job working as a secretary in a medical office. Then she learned how to do medical billing and did that for a while. Once she left my dad (I was 25) she started her own business doing mental health billing. My mom has clients all over the Midwest. Her one woman operation has blossomed into having eight employees. She is very successful and has trained an employee to manage her office. She still works but has backed off a lot of the day to day operations. She will retire next year and the business will be managed by her office manager and she will take profits as owner.

She is very successful. And I'm glad she is. But I do feel a bit bad about my childhood comments to her. I didn't realize she had taken it to heart. When my kids were little, I was a sahm. But once my baby went to kindergarten, I went back to work. That was always my plan.

As an adult, I can see the value in both choices. As a kid, I didn't view her as an equal partners to my dad and that was for a lot of reasons. I am very proud of what she has accomplished.

My mom was a waitress when she married my dad at 18. She continued to waitress part-time until after my brother and sister were born and then she stayed at home from then on out.

My mother was a chemist at a pharmaceutical company during WWII. After the war she got married and started having four kids. She was a wonderful, attentive mother, but she was wasted on motherhood. (My observation, not a feeling I ever got from her.) She did volunteer work, read constantly and widely, and was the first person I knew who had a personal computer - a Kaypro II in 1982 or 83. I truly think she was born at the wrong time. Nowadays, she could have had children if she wanted to, but could also have done her science thing and probably have been more fulfilled. Heart trouble ran in her family and she died at age 63, when I was 30.

My mother was a concert pianist. She gave up her career to marry my father. Though, she still performed locally when asked.   As a child I didn't use an alarm clock. I was awakened by Chopin and Mozart.  If my mother had a performance she would practice for 6 hours per day, at least.   She was a sahm and really enjoyed it.  One of my nephews is an accomplished violinist and I know that my mother is looking down at him w/such pride.

My mom was a hairdresser. She worked while I was in elementary school and I was what used to be called a “latch key kid”. In the mid-80s, When I went into Jr High she quit work and stayed home.

I hated it because she was always home after school. Looking back, it was the smartest decision she made. That’s the age when all the trouble starts.

Mom was the first in her family to graduate from high school, so you can imagine how little education was valued in her family. However, she would have loved to go to college and encouraged both her kids to do so. She was working in civil service when she met and married my father. He didn’t want her to work, so she stayed home until I was about 12, using her paychecks to increase the college funds for my brother and me and using every 3rd paycheck as mad money. She retired at 59, spending the next 24 years busier than she had been while working with her women’s sorority, charities, and socializing.

As a result of her going back to work, I was able to go to an expensive private college and finish through my masters degree without ever having to work or borrow money. DH and I are trying to pay it forward with our own son.

My mom started working when my parents split up when I was four. she never had a career, just a series of jobs.

My mom had a degree from UCLA and then when to grad school for math after we were born. She was a sahm when we were little but by grade school she worked 3 days per week as a computer programmer for an economic forecasting/ modeling company.

My mom was a hair dresser before she married and had kids (late 20’s) and never went back to that. My family owned a business and she did help there when it was needed, but was a SAHM with about 95% of the duties at home falling to her because of the hours my dad worked. She never went back to work once we were grown and out of the house. Although it wasn’t long after that time that my dad started to scale back some of his work when my sister came into the business. So they started spending winters in Florida and traveling more.

Her career choices never played much of a role in mine. I am technically a SAHM mom now, but do all of the books and clerical work for my husband’s businesses. Not at all what I am trained to do, but the arrangement works for us. I have a degree and had a good career before having our children. I don’t feel like my education was a waste at all, since I could still go back if or when I needed or wanted to. But I don’t necessarily feel like I need to go back to prove anything to myself if that makes sense, I am proud and content with what I accomplished. I do sometimes miss it... however, going back would be a big change and stress on me and the family right now.

She doesn't suffer from depression, she had a problem with her balance that made her walking unsteady, she took this as a sign that she shouldn't ever have to do another thing for herself. She gradually over a few years stopped going out, stopped watching tv, stopped reading, stopped doing any housework, stopped even going to the table to eat. She isolated herself and my dad and their lives became so small and stagnant it was difficult to watch.