Mom and Binary Boy (5 days old)
Beginning when you’re very young, everyone asks you what you want to be when you grow up. For a long time, I wanted to be an artist – as in paintings. As I got older, my idea of what I wanted to be when I grew up changed. For a while I wanted to be a biologist, then an oceanographer, then a geographer, then a park ranger, then I flirted briefly with the idea of joining the Navy, then a nutritionist, then a teacher, and then I went for my Veterinary Technician degree. Obviously, none of them worked out and for the most part, I’ve worked in administration.
Through all of my years trying to find something that I found fulfilling, it never occurred to me, as a little girl, that I could be a mom when I grew up. As young children, we all take our moms, and everything she does for us, for granted. And besides, a mom doesn’t get paid money for her job and she doesn’t have to go into an office, or even dress up…so does it count?
As a woman who’s worked since she was 15 years old and now a new mom, I feel I can say that yes, it counts. Not only does it count as a “real” job, it is possibly the most important job on the planet. Moms are caring for and nurturing and molding the future adults of the world: the future husbands and wives and moms and dads of this world. It occurred to me that, for the most part, moms truly are the glue that keeps the human race together.
Even though moms don’t get a salary, paid vacation, sick leave or a pension, being a mom is a real job, and, for some women, a career. However, whether or not a woman makes a “career” of being a mom or not, being a mom is still a full-time job. Once a woman is mom, she will FOREVER be a mom, even when her child is having children of their own. It is a lifelong position that provides a challenging work place, room for growth and, best of all, unconditional love.
Even though most girls don’t really say “I want to be a mom when I grow up.”, most of us do become mothers and, I gotta tell ya, it really is the best job in the whole wide world. Oh, and those applying must be able to multi-task!
Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there!