Coffee Shop Goss Banora Point > Kirra Beach - October 2014 | Page 14

FOCUS ON
THE FAMILY
The Value of
Stay-at-Home Mums
by Jill Savage
It was Rose Kennedy who said, “I looked on
child rearing not only as a work of love and
duty but as a profession that demanded
the best that I could bring to it.” Like Rose,
I have found that indeed motherhood is a
profession, and it certainly deserves the best
I can bring to it.
What happens at home is central to a child’s
ability to function throughout his life. Home
is where bonding takes place and a child
learns to attach to relationships. When a
child can attach, that means they learn to
trust people. Learning to trust is essential for
having healthy relationships throughout life.
Our adopted son, Kolya, lived in an
orphanage for the first nine years of his
life. While it appears that it was a good
orphanage, as orphanages go, the reality
is that group care is never the same as
mothering care. Since Kolya became a
part of our family, Mark and I have been
intentional about helping him learn to trust.
Because I couldn’t snuggle him as a baby,
I’ve worked to snuggle with him in other
ways. Sometimes I rub his legs, arms, and
back with lotion at bedtime, other times we
snuggle on the couch watching TV.
This child doesn’t need quality time; he
needs quantity time. He needs to know that

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we’re there in the morning when he wakes
up and there at night when he goes to
bed. He needs to know we’ll be there after
school and at any sport or music event he
participates in. Home is where he is learning
to trust, to love, and to be loved.
Home is where a child learns who they
are. Each of us is created uniquely by
God. We have unique gifts, talents, and
temperaments. Home is the place those are
discovered and celebrated.
Home is where we learn whose we are.
We’re not designed to journey through life
alone. God created us to have relati ۜ