misleading terminology

So, I've been reading a little bit of The Political Mind and thinking about the nature of how terminology frames the perception of a particular topic. Lakoff's thesis is (very loosely - apologies, Mr. Lakoff!) that there are certain relationships between things that become hardwired in our brains through early experiences that are reflected linguistically through deep-seated metaphors (e.g., warmth = love or acceptance; It took him awhile to warm up to me.). We combine these metaphors to create larger metaphors that help us orient ourselves in relationship to other people and concepts. The more experience we have supporting these relationships, the more useful and significant they are for expressing concepts. Conversely, that the more we use these metaphors linguistically, the more they entrench relationships between things in our minds. The political implications that he fleshes out through what I've read of the book so far are that the more we play within the bounds set by the other side's metaphorical view of the situation, the more we actually reinforce their take on the world, by reinforcing the metaphorical pairing within the minds of anyone listening, and that getting to the root of what we want to express, and painting a full vision of how we see things working, is the key to making gains. His research sits at a fascinating juncture of linguistics and cognitive neuroscience, and I'm looking forward to finding the time to actually do justice to the nuance of the argument.
All that to say, I've been thinking a lot lately about what it means to be Ella's primary caregiver, and I realize how significant everything flagged for me by the phrase "stay-at-home mom" is in some of the dissatisfaction I feel in this role. For me, particularly, the phrase "stay-at-home" has enormous connotations of boredom and constraint.
But, I also think that using "stay-at-home" has to do with the larger framing of the work/stay-home debate. It ties together the delight of being there to witness your child's early years and get to know them intimately and have the privilege of imparting your most cherished ideas and values to another young life with a deeply unsatisfying patriarchalist paradigm that dictates where exactly a woman's place is and what exactly she is good for. And it makes being with your children the marked case.
This is still only the chaotic seed of an idea. I do know, however, that keep my sanity, Ella and I are going to have to get out a little more. And if we do that, I'm going to need a new word for myself.