Happy Housewives: Call them stay-at-home moms, they don't mind

There is a group of women in Rio Rancho who don't mind being called housewives or stay-at-home moms.

It's what they are. It is the lifestyle they have chosen.

Many had full-time, fulfilling careers before marrying and starting their families. For some, the transition from career to stay-at-home mom proved challenging. There was something, however, about going from career to wife and mother that is as the MasterCard commercial says: priceless. Priceless, because they are able to stay home and raise their children during the early and crucial years of their young lives.

These local women belong to MOMS Club of Rio Rancho South, which includes families living south of Northern Boulevard. There is a second club, MOMS Club of Rio Rancho North, which includes those living north of Northern Boulevard. Between the two, there are more than 60 members. Both clubs are an arm of MOMS (Moms Offering Moms Support) Club, a national non-profit organization which provides support for mothers who are at home full or part-time with their children during the day, said Mindy Tapia, president of MOMS Club of Rio Rancho South.

The goals of this group include moral support to stay at-home mothers, providing a forum for topics of interest to women, as well as to provide enriching, wholesome activities for children to enhance their social skills.

The MOMS Club has worked for Tapia, who has a master's degree in education and was an elementary teacher in Las Cruces before she met and married her husband, John. They have one daughter and another on the way. Tapia started college at New Mexico State University with the idea that she'd have a career.