Hanging by a Thread

"Mom, I know why daddy married you," the seven year old girl said. "Daddy married you so you'd work for us for free..."

Whoa, doggies, I sure hope daddy and mommy set that little girl straight, but...

When our last child was a few months old, Old Fuzzy was preaching as a try out for a congregation. Our two oldest were eighteen and nineteen, so there were only the five kids with us.

At the dinner meal that Sunday one of the women made a snarky remark about 'I know why you had that last child—so you don't have to go to work'.

Any time I remember that statement it is one of those —I wish I'd been on my best come back day—but I wasn't.

I like zinger answers with a purpose. The kind that put people in their place, leave them with a wow, I never thought of that, and help them realize being rude is a mistake. All without being rude or profane.

I know there are people who have the opinion that unless the woman, has a job outside the home they are leeching off of their spouse.

I say it's the woman that gets the 'leech' label. If the husband is a stay at home husband, since he's breaking the rules he becomes fashionable.

I have seen stay at home moms that sat in front of the T.V. or played on the computer all day. I've seen people go to work and goof off and play on the computer much of their day. Character doesn't change with where you work.

There is the scriptural directive for the woman to be a 'keeper in the home'. Since the Lord thought it was important it shouldn't be marginalized.

When it came time for me to choose which option I would choose, we decided I would be a homemaker.

About thirteen years ago I was having trouble with my back. While Old Fuzzy was on a mission trip I found I could sleep better on the couch.

When he returned I'd start out in our bed, but after he went to sleep I'd slip out and sleep on the couch. That worked for maybe a week.

Then we went new mattress shopping. Old Fuzzy said we didn't get married for us to sleep in two different places.

There is a bit of a similarity here. Marriage is a coming together. A joining if you will, for the benefit of not just the two original subjects, but their offspring and family.

God intended marriage and home to be a place of nurturing and peaceful harmony. One in which each person is raised up to grow into the person God designed.

I had a weird, compromised childhood, and it was a painful childhood. I saw the difference between my mother and grandmother.

My mother was never a mother in reality. Grandma was the woman who taught us and loved us. Grandma was the one we turned to. The harsh truth—Mom was never there.

I figured someone had to raise our kids. It should be me as opposed to some stranger. When the mom goes off to work, not always, but far too often, the mom becomes the stranger.

That's why by the end of the summer the parents are ready to send them back to school. They've never bonded to their own kids.

When our kids were growing up we worked and played together, laughed and cried, good times and bad, we were together. We one for all and all for oned together. Bonds that shouldn't ever be broken.

There were some things my children were not allowed to do when growing up because I didn't like it. I was the adult in the room, and like when I was a child and we played softball. My sister had the ball, the glove, and the bat. You played by her rules or she would take her stuff and go home.

Ephesians 6:1 "Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. 2) Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;) 3) That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. 4) And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord."