Transitional Generation?

This weekend Emmy told me that when she grows up she wants to me a “mommy”.  Such a sweetheart.  Nothing would make me happier.  Hopefully a little of what I have done as a mom has influenced that decision.   

When I was growing up, I had the same answer as Emmy.  If anyone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up I would say a mom as well.  When I responded a mom, I referred to the stay-at-home kind of mom.  I still want to be a stay-at-home mom when I grow up!  Part of my answer stemmed from the fact that my mom stayed at home with my siblings and I when we grew up and it was all I knew and wanted.  A lot of my friends moms were also stay-at-home moms growing up but all of us are now working women.  

 In my opinion, our generation’s parents raised us in a different time when things were less expensive and simpler.  People were more content living is smaller homes, sharing rooms and possibly even a car.  (The fact that I grew up in Toronto as opposed to Southern California where I live now, likely is a big influence on this opinion.  Perhaps it is just the environment in which I live now that makes it appear that everyone is striving for big houses and fancy cars and vacations).  It wasn’t until I grew up and graduated college and got married that I realized I was not going to be able to follow my dreams of being a stay-at-home mom, it is almost impossible to live in Southern California on one income.  My dream of being a mom still came true, I am just not living my life exactly how I had always envisioned.   

I wonder when Emmy tells me that she wants to be a “mommy” when she grows up, what does she mean by that and how does she envision her life?  She is the daughter of a full-time working mom and has gone to daycare since she was 12 weeks old.  Since that is all she knows, does she define mommy as the stay-at-home kind like I did?  Or does she assume she will also work outside of the home?  We are all a product of our homes and environment so it will be interesting to see how she ends up raising a family one day.  Times are a changing.  Are we the transitional generation that is teaching our daughters about being a mother and a working woman?  Will generations to come continue to work outside of the home without debate because more were raised in homes in which their mothers worked?  I am not sure if this is a good or bad thing but it may save our daughters the conflict and struggle some of us go through now having to accept the fact we have to work outside of the home, unlike our mothers did.