Marriage and Stay-at-Home Parents

Posted by Diane Laney Fitzpatrick Dec 13, 2007

When you’re a mom, you’re everybody’s mom.

I love the scenes from the movie Mr. Mom when Teri Garr starts to pick up the trash from the conference room table at the ad agency, and later reaches over to cut the meat on her boss’s plate in a restaurant.

Isn’t that what we often turn into? The one who – wherever we are – cleans up, cuts up food, and answers to every child who yells “Mom!”

It’s bad enough that we’re the mom to strangers, but when we turn into the mother of our husbands, well, that’s just bad.

For starters, we don’t need another child. We need a partner.

Marriage experts say having children is a major strain on a married couple’s relationship. And if one parents stays home and handles all the work relating to the kids and the house, while the other parent earns all the money, that division of labor can cause serious stress.

It takes some effort to take off your mom hat and take on the role of wife, friend, and partner.

We may all admit that it’s worth the effort to work on building and maintaining our marriages, but it’s easier said than done. On our long list of things to do in a day, “be a good spouse” rarely makes the cut.

It’s worth it, though. Take some advice from marriage experts in Suite 101’s article Marriage Advice for Moms and Dads and set aside some time for a regular date night.