The description of a mother today differs widely from how a mother was described in the past, even twenty years ago.
Many people believe that in today’s society, being a mother means you have laid aside your career and sacrificed any chance of truly being successful or fulfilled. How can a mother ever do anything except follow her child around, changing diapers, and cooking? How can she focus on dreams or make goals?
Regardless of what the world may think, motherhood is a divine calling taken on by women as different as our human family. Many work. Many stay at home. No matter what the perception of the world is, motherhood is a full-time job and just like any other job there are goals, failures, successes, and dreams that come with being a mother. Here are five ways being a mother is one of the most intense, important full-time jobs there is.
Mothers take on huge responsibilities and management tasks.
Mothers are given the responsibility to bear and raise a child. They must look after a human being year after year. A mother teaches a child how to listen, how to learn, and most importantly, how to love. What greater responsibility is there than this? What job has such a large obligation as to spend 18 years looking after someone else?
Shifts are much longer than 8 to 5…
Many jobs are hard and meticulous, and that includes motherhood. But motherhood is a sacrifice that does not end at 5 pm. Her shifts are 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. There are no days off or vacations, because once a mom, she is always a mom. This doesn’t change if her child moves away, passes away, or decides they don’t want her as a mother anymore.
…but she still needs breaks.
Like all other jobs, mothers definitely need breaks. There will be moments where she needs to focus on herself so that she is at peace and strong enough to get back to work. She may need to find time for other things. Maybe she maintains her independence beloved hobbies, continued educational pursuits, or business pursuits. Being a mother doesn’t erase who she is; who she is enhances her ability to love and nurture.
Mothers can’t leave work at work.
At work, you can walk away at the end of the day and put it behind you. Mothers, however, are deeply invested and emotionally connected to every aspect of their roles to serve and nurture. Her failures at ‘work’ stay within her and her successes thrill her more than anything else. Every bit of her, her body, her emotions, her time, her love, is given away.
Motherhood is a job worth doing…and defending.
All too often, mothers today have to defend their not only their parenting decisions, but their decision to mother in the first place. She has to be able to describe what being a mother means to her so as to help others understand why it is necessary and joyous. She has to defend her life choices so as to not be mocked or belittled. Her job not only requires fulfilling the job responsibilities, but defending the job. And sometimes, she even needs to doubt her own doubts of being a mother.
Motherhood is a sacrifice, a lifelong, full-time job, that cannot be forgotten nor overlooked.
Lauren is studying Journalism at Brigham Young University and considers the East Coast home. She has a passion for writing, photography, skiing, hiking, and traveling. She enjoys studying German and is married to her best friend.
