Overthinking It

This morning as I was in my room getting ready Sam was keeping me company. He picked up a nickel off of my nightstand. "Money!" he said, and started to dash off with it.

"Sam!" I laughed. "Where are you going with that money?"

"Dad money," he replied.

"That's Mom's money, buddy!" I answered.

"No," he shook his head. "Money is Dad's."

I can look at this in a few ways:

A) The nickel was, in fact, Eric's. Sam saw Eric put it on the nightstand.
B) Sam is two and very few of the things he says actually make sense.
C) Due to my decision to be a stay-at-home mom, Sam has started to believe that men are solely responsible for earning and having money. Women do not have money.

I haven't had a lot of mom guilt lately so it should come as no surprise that I automatically chose option C.

It is so important to me that my kids don't see their gender as a defining attribute. That women can be construction workers and men can be at-home dads. (My husband is a nurse, for pete's sake.) That one of the greatest blessings of living in this country is having the freedom to make the choice that is best for one's self and family.

Children learn what they see. I work a very part-time job right now and will eventually return to work full-time. But in the meantime, how do I show Sam that a life's work is more than a paycheck? That how our family operates is just one of the many ways moms, dads, and kids can live and be happy?

Ugh. I'm not going to be able to stop worrying about this and I'm having trouble even pinpointing just what my concern is.

I blame the time change.