This is my mother and me about two months ago. Sorry it's so blurry. Doesn't she look great!
My mother has been a role model to me my whole life. She has always been a wife and mother that I have looked up to and wanted to be like. She doesn't give herself enough credit for her importance in these roles. When I was in high school she would encourage me to go to college and have a career so that I wouldn't end up as just a housewife like her. And I did just that. I went to college and had a 25 year career. What she didn't realize was that my desire always was to be a good wife and mother and "just a housewife" like she was.
It seems that being a good wife and mother is not appreciated for how difficult and important a job it is. And I want to emphasize "good". Any female can be a wife and mother, but to actually be good at it is a whole different story. It's a job that requires more skill than any executive. You need to be an organizer, manager, multi-tasker, cheauffer, boss, nurse, cook, housekeeper, hostess, and the list can go on. Oh - and all of this with a smile on your face, and no sick days. I don't know of any executive that has all of these skills in a work place and would do all that for the wages it pays. It's a 24/7 job and it seems thankless most of the time. But as you get older you realize how important family is. When you see the fruits of your labor grow up to be wonderful adults and parents themselves, and you're still married to the same man, and you have beautiful grandchildren, then that job as good wife and mother becomes the most rewarding job any female could have.
The debate will go on forever between stay at home mothers and working mothers and I've been both. I can honestly say that being a working mother is easier. Which is why I admire stay at home mothers so much and if had it to do over again I would have strictly been a stay at home mother.
The point I'm trying to make is that being a good wife and mother is a hard job and one that I admire greatly. My mother would be the pefect definition. I wish she realized this as much as I do.
