If you really feel that you must have a business card, I vote for number three. I have worked so hard to make sure I have a life beyond motherhood. I don't want my kids assuming that they are all I have going on in this loopy brain of mine. Also, without my own thang and time, I can be a bitch on wheels. I was talking to one of my homeschool mentors about my girl leaving home and she pointed something out I thought was interesting: that homeschooling moms often don't have such a strong dose of the empty nest thing. When our kids head out to explore the next chapter--mission accomplished. That said, since Motherhood is given such societal lip service, I would like financial compensation and affordable health care.
I was a "just a mom" ages ago, and I know that dinky little business card is entirely too small to list your FULL job title.
You'd have to wear a sandwich board.
I still use personal calling cards for a simple reason: they allow me to give someone the contact info that I choose to give. My cards have my email addy, website, instant messenger and Skype IDs. The one thing it does not have is my telephone number. Not only does this cut down on my telephone costs but it makes it plain that online is the best way to get in touch with me, not to say the means I am most comfortable with. Saying "The best way to get in touch with me is online" to people has not worked, I often get "Well, I prefer to call people, it's more personal." Well, I don't prefer to be called, perhaps I'm not yet comfortable being "more personal," and if all this means you'd rather not contact me, then so be it.
I've also found that such cards are a good physical reminder to people about you. It is easy to get cheap, highly customizable cards on the web. Moo.com is brilliant.
And for a busy mom, it's also much quicker and easier to say "I'd love to talk with you later but I have to wrestle these two into the backseat. Here's my card, please keep in touch."
Second career
You know, I once shared a desk with a guy whose girlfriend made several hundred bucks an hour spanking bad bad executives on their lunch hours (and nothing more). All while we were making eight grand a year as teaching assistants. As a job title, that kind of Mommy was pretty lucrative.
I think more bothersome than the trend to define yourself by your children is the idea that if you DON'T, you're a bad mother. If you sacrificed your own dreams and desires - your very personality - for the love of a man, it would seem dependent and .. well, sad. But you're supposed to do that for your children to be considered a good parent.
I'm so sick of the condescention from SAHM's, saying, "Well, I don't NEED all that other stuff. I'm happy just mothering my kids." I'm quite capable of loving my children AND maintaining my personality. Why is it so trendy to be shallow?
I think the idea of business cards, or contact cards, is brilliant. There are many places on the web that make those possible.
The ones referenced at Accidental Housewife are specifically for So-and-So's Mommy. They employ lots of pink. They are clearly designed to infantalize stay-at-home Moms. You would never, ever catch me ordering them, or handing them out. Ick.
Then again, you could identify yourself:
Redneck Mother
Wife, homeschooling mother of two young sons, blogger.
Do NOT mess with me, you CAN NOT win.
When I had actual business cards, all I ever did was hand them out to people I wanted to get rid of, and tossed them into Win A Free Lunch! jars in cafes.
And someplace in the bottom of my little red wheelie, is a stack of 100+ blogger calling cards from BlogHer. Pointless, if you ask me.
If someone handed me a Mommy Card, I'm not sure I could keep a straight face. Most people have cellphones, so why not take 30 seconds and save a new friend's contact info that way?
Because it takes two seconds and one hand to exchange a card vs. a few minutes and both hands to exchange contact info via cell phone, which also implies that phone numbers should be exchanged, and some people don't always like to exchange numbers.
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