A title?

  I'm a mom. A wife. And I spend a great deal of my waking/breathing/thinking time concerned with educating my kids.  In my executive capacity that those occupations entail, I also function as an accountant, strategic planner, forecaster, designer, tailor, chef (sometimes), cook (the rest of the time), short order cook (when I forget to plan our days strategically), financial wizard, janiorial superviser, homework overseer, chauffeur, driver training instructor, idea generator and implementor (who heavily relies on my husband for both tasks!), computer overlord, scheduler.  

Did I mention I have an increasing tendency toward forgetfulness?  Yeah, I use TWO planners.  One to see where I've been and one to make sure I don't forget future plans.

I'm sure I've forgotten half the things I do.  Like laundry.  Which I happen to enjoy.  Unlike de-cluttering. Yuck.

Here's my beef. After ignoring many invites to Linked In, I finally created a profile.  Actually, I think it's the second time I've done it, but I have no record of what my ID or email may have been back in that early sleep-deprivation time of mothering small children.  I don't honestly care either.

What really bothers me is how many other homeschooling moms feel it is important to have an important sounding title.  The two titles I most wanted back in my outside-the-home-paycheck-receiving career days were Wife and Mother.  I've had to give on Mother; my kids call me Mom but essentially it's the same thing.  The paycheck could jump ship.  

At first I wanted to come up with something equally important, but they felt like fraudulent titles and waaaay too limiting.  

Because I remember how bored I got at work with an important sounding title of Business Systems Analyst.  Same thing day in and day out.  There were parts I enjoyed and parts that were stodgy.  

Kind of like now.

Like when I really don't want to explain that math concept ONE MORE TIME! Or dinner. 

Or grade that economics paper that for some ridiculous reason, I thought was important to assign.  Something about making them think and research a pertinent topic.

But you know what?  That's what I signed up to do.  That's what every mom signed up to do.  Okay, maybe not grade the paper, but I know my mother certainly helped me work through many assignments!

When I had that title, I never felt that what I did would matter in two years.  I yearned to do something that mattered.

Now it matters, and sometimes I wish it didn't matter so much.  

The reality is that no matter who presides over the government, and no matter what state society or the economy finds itself, I'll never be out of a job.  When my kids are grown and gone, I'll STILL be their mother.  I'll still be a wife--(sorry Jim, you're stuck.  You made an eternal contract.)  

So my title on LinkedIn isn't very fancy.  It's pretty plain and wraps up what I spend most of my time doing.  I'm a mom.  And for the unimaginative, I've added Homeschooler.