“So You Want To Be A Stay-At-Home Mom,” by Cheryl Gochnauer

At a recent book sale at my church, the title of my most recent reading endeavor leaped off the table.

So You Want to Be a Stay-At-Home Mom, by Cheryl Gochnauer

When I saw it laying there, I grabbed it up and took it to Scott and said, “I have to have this book.”

I’m glad I did. It’s a really good book.

In it, Cheryl (as I’m going to call her, since I feel like we’re friends now) writes about how moms can take the steps necessary to quit working outside the home and be able to stay at home with their children. Because the book is really targeted at moms who want to be stay-at-home moms (and not moms who already are staying at home) the first few chapters were not of a whole lot of use to me. They addressed things like how to talk to your boss about your plans and how to chart out the family budget to see how feasible the whole thing is. Useful information, yes, but not at this stage in the game for me.

Later in the book, though, I was captivated. She wrote about how to function on a budget, creative things to do with your kids to stimulate and educate them, and how to survive day after day at home with no adult conversation. Those topics, my friends, were very relevant to me. With one or two nights of insomnia, I was able to churn through the latter two-thirds of the book with no problem whatsoever.

When I finished the book last night, Scott asked if it was good. When I told him it was, he asked why. My answer? “Because it reminded me that I’m not the only one out there doing this thing. It was like a playdate at the park in book form.”

That, my friends, is priceless.