MP Story by Amy Rinsema (Pittsburgh, PA)

Stay-at-Home Mom * Mother of 1

By 5:30 AM, I was soaked to the bone with the exception of an area just big enough to hide a cell phone. The time change guaranteed an extra hour of dark peace, but an hour wasn’t enough to finish a Sunday morning in blissful anonymity.

Two and a half years ago, the mention of me greeting the dawn every day would have brought howls of laughter from everyone from my students, to my college roommates, to my nieces and nephews, but today it’s become a morning ritual of a year and counting. Forget the rain, snow, sleet and hail braved by the postal service; they get vacation and benefits. Despite the persistent “squee-gee” uttered by my shoes, I realize my biggest benefit was snuggled next to Dad, waiting for Mom to spend the day with him.

Discovering we were expecting was a welcome surprise, but when my husband and I decided to flee the scorching Phoenix heat for the cloudy skies of Pittsburgh, we never expected what storms were to come, like many couples, I’m sure. On the surface, we were set: my husband found a job, my teaching certificate in Pennsylvania was valid, and we had a place to live that wouldn’t break the bank if we couldn’t sell our condo.

The problem? I couldn’t bear the thought of leaving our son everyday, though we desperately needed the extra income. Friends and family were sure that a tutoring position or online teaching job couldn’t be that hard to find for someone with a Master’s Degree and five years experience in teaching and curriculum design, yet the hunt proved their optimism wrong as the economy started to weaken. I was offered a full-time position at the company for whom I was temping up until I delivered, but that meant an almost twelve-hour day with commuting, so with my due date fast approaching, I filled out the application to deliver papers. Twenty-plus years working, and I was trying to return to the very place where it all began.

Months passed, the baby was born, and still no other options appeared on the horizon.

Sleeping Beauty quickly learned to “re-appreciate” the wee hours in those first weeks after our son was born, and the fatigue was multiplied by two months of visits from doting relatives. The end of disability was in sight, and I still didn’t have a job lined up for the six week mark, much less daycare options in this relatively new city.

That’s when I got the call. If someone had asked me to schedule an interview at 6:30 in the morning at any other point in my life, I would have choked on my tongue, but after six weeks of sleeping in two hour stints it didn’t seem all that unreasonable; after all, that’s when the baby slept. I have a sneaking suspicion that requesting the interview be moved up an hour clinched it.

Now, if five-thirty rolls around and I’m not out, I’m unemployed, but I consider myself lucky. Mommy Power is what allows me to usher in Christmas with Santa and the reindeer and witness the Easter Bunny sipping that first cup of joe. Divinely-inspired Mommy Power is what I witness every day as I see the Mommies, Grandmommies and – yes – truly Great-grandmommies who only start their working day tossing the morning paper before heading to the day jobs that also support their families. So, I may be soaked, but on most days, I’m still smiling.