Moms' Night Out

Moms. Kids. Babies. Choices. Needs. Culture. Time. Priorities. Preferences. Finances.  Expectations. Heart issues. 

There is a new movie, “Moms Night Out” playing in theaters. This movie was made for moms … it’s about moms … it honors moms.

The critics are bashing this movie; their platform of disgust is not the acting, the scripting, the camera angles, or the lighting. The media and critics are vehement in their comments concerning this movie simply because the main character is a stay at home mom.

Some of the comments that you can read in reviews of the movie are these:

“Depressingly regressive and borderline dangerous”     

 “Unabashedly anti-feminist comedy”     

“Ugly sexism”     

“Peddles archaic notions of gender roles”   

 “Insulting”

“Allison's lack of a profession consigns the character into Eisenhower-esque irrelevance.”

I was a stay at home mom for all of the 31 years that I was raising children. I am not a dangerous woman, nor am I insulted by the notion that some moms still choose to stay at home during the baby years, the toddler years and beyond. These critics do not speak for me.

I know that times are changing … I know that life is expensive and that women are capable and that we all have dreams to fulfill. I know that single moms must work … they must. I know that we live in a society where most families are only scraping by even with 2 incomes. I know all of those things.

But I also know the heart of a child. I know that to a child “love” is spelled “t-i-m-e.” I have always believed that saying “quality” time fills the needs of a child was a deceptive defensive mechanism. After raising 5 children, I have found that quantity of time is perhaps the most valuable investment I have made in my children’s lives.

I am smart … I am a college graduate … I write books … I have dreams … but I also realized that the window of opportunity for influence that I had with each one of my miraculous children was small. Way too small.  And so I was one of the women in my generation who chose to say “no” to prestigious jobs, better cash flow and societal importance. I chose to stay at home and I do not have one ounce of regret.

I knew that the years would fly by. I knew that what I, the mom, was gloriously able to give to my children no day care could give … no fabulous babysitter was able to impart … and no caring neighbor could offer.

I was their only mom.

I wore the same dress every Christmas and Easter for 11 years. We were a one car family until our oldest child was 13 years old. My furniture was hand-me-downs, we shopped at yard sales, and cable TV was an impossibility.

But I was there. And that should not be considered dangerous or disgusting for any woman at any time in history.

Listen, we all have choices. And if you have chosen to work or have found yourself in a position where you must work during your children’s formative years, then trim other things out of your schedule. You might not get to go to the gym 7 days a week, or enjoy a leisurely lunch out with friends, or go to the mall by yourself. If you are working by choice or by necessity, spend every extra minute that you are able to spend with these delicious little lives that you have been given.

I am now an empty nest mom and I don’t regret one minute of one hour of one day that I spent in their company. As a matter of fact, if you ask any mom in my season of life what their one regret is, they would say that they wish they had spent more time with their children … not less.

We live in a society that does not value children. We value prestige, platform, success, travel, sports, entertainment, and money … but not children. Our culture says that it is a waste for a woman to give productive years of her life to raising the next generation. Our culture has it wrong.

The producers of “Moms Night Out” have it right.