I Wrote Writer

Life is full of tricky questions.  Right now, for me, one of the trickiest is, “What do you do?”

For a while I tried saying, “I’m a blogger”, but I found this often confused people.  What the heck is a blog anyway??

Or worse, I was met with sad sympathy.  A somewhat  pained expression that seemed to say, “Oh you poor thing.  You have no direction in life so you’ve had to make up a career” as they fumbled for a semi-appropriate response…Yeah, it was awkward.  

So I gave up, and returned back to telling everyone I was a SAHM.

But this felt dishonest.  In doing so, I was ignoring a whole huge part of myself.  A part of myself that I dedicated countless hours to and poured myself into.  A part of myself that was vibrant and real.  And more practically, a part of myself that was a earning a (tiny) little bit of cash that allowed and required me to hire a sitter for at least few hours a week to watch my children.  It was my job.

A lot of people might not get this, and I don’t blame them.  Odd thing to explain that you fork over huge chunks of time so you can blather on about yourself online for mere pennies.  But the thing is, bizarre or not, it’s my reality.

And now it is time to start reporting it.  Not long ago I had the awesome pleasure of hanging out with the lovely, so lovely, Stephanie Giese of Binkies and Briefcases.  She recently wrote about how her dream of writing being realized through her life as a SAHM on Huffington Post.  This article, along with the in-person observation she offered that maybe we need to start claiming ourselves as authors when people ask what we do, struck a chord.  I’ve never properly thanked her for this, so thank you, Steph.  You are so smart and I am grateful.

Because of her words and all the thoughts that have been rumbling around in my head for a bit now, I bit the bullet last week.  I was at a new chiropractor’s office with a Groupon (really, when does a week pass by that I don’t find myself in at least one new situation, courtesy of Groupon? Very potentially/definitely a Groupon-addict.).  On the new patient form loomed the question: “Occupation?”.  With a sharp intake a breath, I pressed my pen to the page and somehow the word “Writer” took shape.

Because that’s what I am.  Because that’s who I am.  It’s now on paper.  And it will now be my response when people ask.  And at least for this phase of my life, I think it’s here to stay.

I spend my time writing; I am a writer.  It’s my identity and I’m claiming it.

Image credit: depositphotos.com, image ID:22065733, copyright:konstantynov

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Meredith

Meredith blogs at The Mom of the Year, where she dedicatedly earns her title one epic parenting fail at a time, offering quick, relatable laughs for fellow parents and all their empathizers. She has been part of several best-selling anthologies, featured on prominent sites such as Huffington Post, In the Powder Room and BlogHer, and loves her role as the Executive VP/Operations Manager of The BlogU Conference. When she's not breaking up fights over Legos and juice boxes, she remains fully committed to sharing a less serious look at the world of parenting.

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