A “Stay at Home Mom” is a mother who doesn’t work for pay, while staying home either alone or with her children. While the moniker has been around for decades, the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 took the family dynamic and forced it to change, with the rate of “Stay at Home Fathers” jumped to almost 1 in 5, becoming roughly 18% of “”Stay at Home Parents”. Still, 25% of all women in the United States classify themselves as a “Stay at Home Mom”.

For Darrien Gardner, who left a career as a Medical Assistant to stay at home with her three children full-time, the move was made for financial reasons. “It just made more sense to stay home, because daycare for two small children would cost over $300 a week,” says Darrien. “Over the last two years we have been able to be better off financially with me staying home and my husband working.” After staying home full-time over the last three years, Darrien offers advice for other “Stay at Home Moms” in the video below:

Many families share the same sentiment. Even in 2026, there is a stigma that women who choose to stay home are lazy, entitled, and “just don’t want to work”. Gracie Fulcher, a fellow stay at home mom had this to say in a January 2026 Facebook post:

Darrien says she has experienced similar sentiments when people find out she chooses to stay at home full-time. “People ask what I do for work and I tell them ‘Oh, I stay at home with the kids’. Sometimes, especially older women, scoff and say things like ‘So your husband works and you don’t?’. It can be really damaging, but I just let it roll of my back, because they don’t actually know me.”

Roughly 70-80% of “Stay at Home Moms” return to work after their child begins elementary school. “Yea, after the youngest starts Kindergarten I’ll be going back to work,” Darrien says. “It’s been amazing getting to spend so much time with my babies in their formative years, though.”