Why I Choose To Stay At Home

Becoming a stay at home mother has taught me many disciplines, the first, and most important, the true value of a dollar. To elaborate, when only one person in the home works, luxuries like going out to eat, whether a restaurant or fast food does not happen frequently, because the budget does not allow. Therefore, now living on an even tighter budget, because of school most meals that my children and I eat are homemade. Also, the importance of family bonding around the dinner table is something that seems to be going out of style as of lately, so my goal is to keep family dinner sacred. Although I enjoy our special time eating around the dinner table, we do occasionally choose to have fast food, or go out to dinner. Growing up, our tradition was to go out to dinner as a family to celebrate birthdays and special occasions, this tradition still holds true today. Moreover, when we do choose to eat outside of the home our first choices are usually, pizza from Pizza Hut, or one our

Surprisingly, the ratio of fast food, to home cooked meals works in our favor nutritionally and economically, as we rarely eat out of the home. In addition, I realize now if we do choose to eat out it is primarily based on our Mexican food loving habit and sheer convenience. Furthermore, when preparing food and serving it to my family I know now, that I choose what to prepare to keep them healthy and disease free, because they are more likely to have high blood pressure, because of family history. Moreover, I make these choices because I am aware of the link between nutrition and chronic diseases in the United States, because of this I believe that I am the advocate for my children and family. In conclusion, then, I believe that my exposure to the proper nutritional information, has provided me with the tools to properly feed and prepare healthy meals for my