by Jonas Borgida

“No pay, but good deeds.” That’s what being a stay-at-home mom is about, according to Andrea Harrington, a current stay-at-home mom.

First, stay-at-home moms do a lot of things each day. They are chefs, a chauffeurs, playmates, house keepers, laundry washers, and accountants all rolled in to one. Next, stay-at-home moms are becoming more and more popular. 29% of women are stay-at-home moms, which is up 6 percent since 1999. Lastly, families with a stay-at-home parent in the house have access to baby-sitting co-ops and other alternative child care options. As you can see stay-at-home parents have a lot more responsibilities than you might think.

Andrea first job was as an interviewer because she loves talking to people. Later, Andrea worked as a software test engineer at Microsoft for many years. It was when Charlotte was born Andrea started to become a stay-at-home mom. She says it was partly an “accident” but she came to enjoy the responsibilities of a stay-at-home parent.

Andrea’s typical is to get up at 6:20, wake up the rest of family, make breakfast, make lunches, drive her car pool, buy groceries, plan meals, clean up, take of two cats, feed a crow (seriously), take out the garbage, make dinner, read stories, clean the kitchen, then bed time. All in a day’s work!

Andrea has a lot of daily responsibilities and works really hard each day. Andrea contributes to her community in many ways. One way she does that is through civic engagement, including donating to public schools and other volunteering and charity work.