Current occupation: Homemaker

My daughter was filling out a job application and needed to list my current occupation. I told her to put homemaker. She said, "Is that a code for staying at home with your kids?" When I first had children I would put housewife on forms, but for a while now I've put homemaker. I noticed that even this past week when asked what I do, I said, "I stay at home with my kids. Oh, but I do work one day a week at my husband's office as a bookkeeper." As though that is a more valid occupation.
After a lesson in Relief Society (the women's meeting during church) this past Sunday, I have a better appreciation and respect for the word homemaker. Bonnie L. Oscarson, the Young Women General President (the president for the entire church's program for girls' ages 12-18 and their leaders) said, "All of us---women, men, youth, and children, single or married---can work at being homemakers. We should 'make our homes' places of order, refuge, holiness, and safety" ("Defenders of the Family Proclamation," Ensign, May 2015, p. 14-17). I love that and I love that it applies to every single person, in or out of our church and regardless of paid employment. Even my children can be homemakers. They can contribute to the good feelings in our home by their obedience, kindness and respect to their parents and siblings, and by contributing to the household. I can be a homemaker by speaking with a soft voice to my children, communicating well with my husband, and keeping the house in order by teaching my children to work and by keeping chaos at bay, which is one of my job descriptions.
As we each contribute in making our homes a safe refuge, we will be happier, those who live in our homes will want to be at home, and we can all list at least in our hearts that we are proudly, homemakers.