It happens and I am never expecting it. ‘What do you do?‘ Oh, like for work?

I don’t ‘work’.

Somehow, that doesn’t seem to cover it. I. Don’t. Work. Ugh.

‘Stay-at-home-mom‘.

I guess that works. To most people, it might imply staying at home and having kids who are in school during the day – or maybe having a preschooler. When our schedule is in full-swing, we are out more than we are home, but it’s an accepted answer.

‘Homeschooler‘.

Bring on the denim jumper and the grinding of wheat or people picturing me standing in front of a blackboard in my dining room teaching quiety seated children. Most people know little about homeschooling and probably conjure images that have very little to do with who I am or what I do all day.

‘Housewife/homemaker‘

Does anyone use these words anymore?

‘Domestic Goddess‘

It’s a snarky, and a little cliche ~ just like I sometimes feel.

I don’t know what picture develops in peoples’ minds when I explain that I don’t work at a paid job or have career and that my kids are homeschooled. I don’t have a college education or a career that I ‘used’ to have. I don’t have something I am eager to return to when my kids are ‘in school’. It is not a situation I pictured myself in 20 years ago, but here I am. Dennis and I have assessed this plan many times and each time, this set up makes the most sense for us and our kids.

I could wax poetic about the virtues of motherhood and home education and domesticity – but I won’t, because I’m busy and I have things to do but I don’t think I can explain what they are.