Through the Seasons

The Value of Motherhood

I just started a new novel and the main character has already put me off a bit.  She had three children and now that they’re in college and adulthood she has thrown herself into a hobby that is turning into a good business.  Nothing wrong with that on the surface.  It’s how the author presents it.  This character feels sorry for her mother who gave up a dancing career to raise a family.  And then she (the daughter) was “on her way up the corporate ladder” when she regretfully gave it up to raise her children.

It makes me feel like motherhood is so undervalued by our society.  It’s not glamorous by any means.  I totally get that.  After picking food off the floor for the fourth time in a day or wiping a butt for the sixth time in a day or saying ‘no touch’ for the twentieth time in a day, I do start to wonder if my efforts are making much difference.

But we, as mothers, can find value in taking care of our homes and families.  I don’t think we have to go outside of the home, start a business, go back to school, get involved in a hobby to then feel worthwhile.  We can do any of those things but we don’t need them to make our lives matter.

Raising children is hard and important.  These little people are going to one day be the adults who make up our society.  We aren’t just feeding, cleaning, and clothing a bunch of kids.  We are teaching, guiding, and shaping individual persons toward adulthood.

Maybe it would help us if we had a bigger view, a bigger perspective, on what our jobs entail.  There is a long-term effect of everything we do now – every word, every action, every decision.  This is big, important stuff!  And if we’re trying to cram our lives full of “meaning” until we’re neglecting our children then we won’t see this job as it really is and we won’t then be providing the best home environment for them to grow up in.

That, again, is not to say everyone who has outside interests is doing that.  We each know our own limitations and motives.  If I am filling my life up in order to feel significant to the point that I am neglecting my child or becoming easily frustrated with him, then I should examine those “outside interests”.  Some can handle more on their plates than others.

My point is that the general attitude seems to be like this author’s where she feels sorry for these women for having such talent and having to “throw it all away” for their families.  Blergh.  God has put us where we are at this moment.  Let us rest and rejoice in that!