I wasn't sure what I wanted to write about today. I've been so busy taking care of my sick kids that I hadn't given it much thought. Olivia got a cold early last week. Jesse came down with it a couple days later. Now my husband has it. I narrowly escaped catching it myself. Not to pat myself on the back, but I started thinking about how important (and undervalued) mothers are. I couldn't get sick. Who would have taken care of everyone else?
My job is far from glamorous. I don't get a paycheck or vacation time. An 8-month-old doesn't have a snooze button. I can't remember the last time I finished a meal without getting up at least once. I've had every body fluid on me at one time or another. I'm responsible for two little people. It's my job to feed them, bathe them, teach them, love them, correct them - mother them. The other day I was reading yet another headline about the job shortage in America. I wondered if anyone else thought "What would happen if mothers stayed home with their children?" For one thing, that would free up a lot of jobs for men and single women. More importantly, it would reunite mothers with their children. It seems strange to me that lots of women go to work so they can pay someone else to care for their children. I found some quotes this afternoon that I'd like to share with you...
“What is home without a mother?” - Alice Hawthorne
"My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. All I am I owe to my mother. I attribute all my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education I received from her." - George Washington
"All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel Mother." - Abraham Lincoln
"The commonest fallacy among women is that simply having children makes one a mother — which is as absurd as believing that having a piano makes one a musician." - Sydney J. Harris
"To be Queen Elizabeth within a definite area, deciding sales, banquets, labors, and holidays; to be Whiteley within a certain area, providing toys, boots, sheets, cakes, and books; to be Aristotle within a certain area, teaching morals, manners, theology, and hygiene; I can understand how this might exhaust the mind, but I cannot imagine how it could narrow it. How can it be a large career to tell other people's children about the Rule of Three and a small career to tell one's own children about the universe? How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone, and narrow to be everything to someone? No; a woman's function is laborious but because it is gigantic, not because it is minute." – G. K. Chesterton
Monday, February 2, 2009
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Love it! I never thought of the job angle, but it does make sense doesn't it?
ReplyDeleteI had a lot of random thougths about mothers staying home with their children, but I couldn't decide how to tie them all together. I just thought of the job angle after reading some of those headlines. Another thing to think about is how many more babies would be breastfed, and how many would be breastfed longer. I'm sure we all know women who stopped breastfeeding because they went back to work. Even some who pump quit because it becomes too burdensome.
ReplyDeleteAnother thought...organic produce in your own back yard. Gardening is great for children (and adults) and is much easier to do when you're home! You can't do much outside when you get home at 5:30 or 6:00. Little kids love to play in the dirt and "help Mama." Olivia has learned all kinds of things helping me garden.
One of my biggest hopes is to find a rental home that will let us garden. Or at least have a container garden even though it will kill the grass where the container is. I would think that a little dead grass would be easier to deal with than a gardened garden. That's great that you are able to garden with your daughter. I'm sure you both learn so much from each other while working outside.
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