I’m in the middle of doing the Mr. Mom thing this week for the past few days. I’m doing this because Amber, who volunteers for the local girl’s youth group, is at Girl’s Camp. For those of you who are not familiar with Girl’s Camp, I will explain it:

  • It is a camp for girls.

And that pretty much explains everything there is to know about Girl’s Camp. But if this concept is still unclear, just remember that girls and boys are pretty much opposites of each other. Not that one is better or worse. The same is true about Girl’s Camp and boy camps – they are opposite. For example, boy camps are fun.

I remember when I was in high school thinking that sneaking up to find the Girl’s Camp would be great fun. Then I actually went to Girl’s Camp one time, on invitation, and realized how, uh, opposite it was.

But I digress. So anyway, I’m here at home with the kids. Before she left, Amber said this would be good for me to help me appreciate her. I said that I already appreciate her and so it was not required.

Nonetheless, she was certainly right. For example, now I understand better why she is so anxious to tell me about the days when Oakley doesn’t take naps. And I kinda get why she tells me that her days are really busy and yet boring at the same time. And now I think I realize more why she looks forward to me coming home so much every day.

I’ve always thought it must be hard being a mom. Not only is it a 24/7/365 job with no vacation or sick days, but it isn’t like you can just quit this job and find another one if it is bringing you down. Having done this recently, I can relate to what this must be like to not be able to quit.

Well, I guess a mom can quit, but she certainly shouldn’t.

However, I did come up with a number of advantages of the mom job:

  • Moms have a lot of control over how their day goes. I didn’t say complete control. But I’m noticing that if we want to have a relaxing day watching movies and playing XBox, or a fun day having a picnic at the park, or buckle down and clean up the house, it is pretty much my call. At work, it takes just one critical bug or unhappy employee to take complete control of my day. (Speaking hypothetically of course – as if we would have either of those at Mozy.)
  • Moms get to work every day with people they really love. Not just like – love. Over the course of my career, one thing I’ve realized is how much the work environment is affected by how much you like the people you work with. Yesterday when Oakley just walked up to me and gave me a hug, or just now when Taelyn made a special piece of artwork just for me, I realized that no matter how great your friends at work, the chances that you’ll like them as much as a mom loves her kids are pretty slim.
  • The mom job – creating the adults of the future – has to be rewarding, or at least it should be, at least some of the time. Writing software programs is admittedly not fun all day every day, but the opportunity to create something new and valuable is pretty fulfilling when I stop and think about it. But computer software is nothing compared to a human life. Watching your kids grow up and learn is pretty awesome – being the mom that makes all that happen has got to be pretty fulfilling if you step back to think about it.
  • Last but certainly not least, if you are a really lucky mom you might get to be married to someone like me. This benefit obviously requires no further explanation.