am I all that stay at home?

A post at The hand Mirror got me thinking about whether there is a better term for parents who are at home raising the children, homemaker isn't that appealing, at home mum is ok, stay at home implies that I actually get to stay at home and not be a taxi for everything, home exec just sounds weird.

It is a strange thing really, I don't know how my Mum classified herself when she was raising my sister and I, but I cant see her being happy being a "housewife" either.

I wonder how my Grandma saw herself, I don't know what labels were used but I am sure she saw herself as a mother/mum first and the household chores bit came second. and where did the term housewife even come from?

I can understand the "wife" bit of it, and the house bit, but it seems a bit degrading of the actual position that it entails. On any given day as a Mum who isn't in paid employment, I make breakfasts, lunches, snacks, dinner, taxi children to school and kindy, do washing etc, housework, blog, put smallest child down for nap, organise my time so that all three children are getting what they need at any given time.... sometimes I get to do sewing, and this week coming I will spend time running around banks trying to get a mortgage while its school holidays so will need to entertain three children all day too....

When written down it all seems rather busy and at times productive, yet some days I get to bed time and wonder if I actually achieved anything at all.... and sometimes the what I have achieved is keeping three little people happy, and everything else has gotten pushed aside.

Parenting is a hard job, its rewarding though and I am lucky to be able to choose to be parenting from home and not from work. D