Very often I get asked what I do for a living. What my job is. And I usually answer “I am just a mom”. Just a mom… Not only does this answer bug me when I give it to people but it actually upsets me right now writing it down.
Why is it that we say ‘just a mom’? As if being a mom is not important…
Being a mom is such an important task. It is actually a huge task.
We are here 24/7. There are no public holidays, no weekends and no vacations in our lives.
We are nurses and teachers, superheroes and princesses, fairies and cowgirls.
We cook, we clean, we read and sing.
We might be mean but we are there if tears need to be wiped, if a band aid needs to be applied.
We are drivers, bakers and fashion designers.
We can do it all and maybe even more.
We can not sleep if one of our little ones is sick, watch over them until we know they are better.
We are there for them, when they need us and it does not matter what time of the day it is.
24 hours, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. We are there. With our love, with our heart, with our soul.
We are not ‘just a mom’. We are ‘a mom’. And there are millions of reasons to be proud of it.
Loved this – and it sums up perfectly exactly what us mums do! I work par time and have always said stay at home mums have the hardest job!
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We might have the hardest job. But it is very rewarding. We home-school as well and sometimes it is exhausting (like any other job) but then it is so great to see them grow and learn.
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How right you are. It is a very difficult and important job.:-)
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Thanks. It is… So many talk it down…
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Amen, Sandra! 🙂
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Thanks 🙂
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Moms are often not just moms but Family Managers 😀
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Absolutely!
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Moms are made of steel, tempered with steam and magic by Hephaestus himself…
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I should talk to you first, before writing my post… it would turn out so much better 🙂 Thanks for this!
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Most important job there is! Never doubt it.
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Yep.
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Ich bin leider noch keine Mama, aber meine Mama hat mehrzeitlich alleine 5 Kinder groß gezogen. Ich weiß, was Mütter leisten müssen. Danke für deinen wunderbaren Beitrag dazu. Meine nächst jüngere Schwester ist vor 1,5 Jahren Mama geworden. Sie ist mit großer Leidenschaft Mama. So will ich auch mal sein, wenn mir dieses großartige Geschenk eines Kindes zu Teil werden wird.
Herzliche Grüße und ein großes Danke an alle Mütter dieser Welt,
Caroline
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Schön. Danke dir für diesen Kommentar. Liebe Grüsse nach Wien 🙂
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And even when our children grow up…we are still MUM!!!
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I sure hope so. Mom and best friend would be nice…
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We are multitasking. We are not ” just moms”, we are ” the moms “.
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Agree 🙂
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Excellent post!! We shouldn’t have to qualify mom with “just” mom when telling others what we do. You’re right–we do EVERYTHING. Guess what? When your kids are grown up, you still are mom! My 30 year old calls me up all the time for advice. Glad I can still give her some! Mom’s “work” is never done and that’s OK!
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And how beautiful is that?! You will always be mom and you hopefully will turn into kind of a best friend as well. Thanks, Terri.
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What an understatement: “just a Mom. ” The most important job in the world.
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I agree!
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From what I read you’re the one who qualified it as “just a mom”. True being a mother is the most important job in the world. After all mothers are raising children to become adults standing on their own two feet, thinking for themselves. The hardest job in many ways. But I would ask what made (makes) add the “just”? That could be an even more interesting post to write.
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Very true and a good question…
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Forgot a word duh. It should read “what made (makes) *you* add the ‘just’?”
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The ‘just’ is actually not added by me. Very often I get asked what I do and when I tell them that I am a Stay-At-Home-Mom some answer with ‘Oh, you are just a mom’. Yes, I had that happen to me. Mind blowing, especially as those women are mothers too and should know what being a mom means.
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Oh I see. From the way you described it I thought it was you. Either way the discussion is interesting. Why do mothers feel (or are made to feel) that being a mom isn’t enough? And why do other people seem think that there should be something more? Society’s expectations…
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Maybe they are just not happy with how their life developed? I am not sure…
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The number of hats we wear is seemingly endless! As is time requirement to be fulfilled. We are parents until the end. Now it’s time to go play referee between my two kids! 🙂
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Hehe. Yes, I agree. We are parents till the end. I hope the little ‘fight’ was settled peacefully 😉
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I think the “world” has long trivialized parenting as that thing you do at home–not a real, income-earning job. In fact, being a parent is the most impactful “non-job” you’ll ever do in this life because it helps shape attitudes, belief systems and values and determines how the next generation will manage and preserve this world we live in.
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And I so agree with you!
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You may not get paid for being a mum, but I think seeing your children smile is worth way more than anything in this world. But on the whole, mothers really need to be more credited, I mean without mothers…none of us would be here lol
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Absolutely! I agree with you 100%
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I remember when my husband and I prepared our wedding. We had a “class” (for lack of a better word) on couple communication and sharing of tasks. It went as such (if I can make something that resembles a table)
In the past the man was doing 25% of the housework, 25% of taking of the children and 100% of his job, meaning that overall he had 1.5 job. The woman doing 75% of the housework and 75% of taking of children also had 1.5 job. Today despite a different sharing of tasks, couple therapists still argue that the sharing of housework and childcare is divided as it was, except that now women also sometimes take on a job meaning that at the end of the day they have 2.5 jobs. That seems to strain couple relations because that means there’s no time for them to do everything, so either the time they spend taking care of themselves isn’t enough or the time they spend on their couple isn’t enough.
I don’t know if that’s always true but this staid with me. And it made me understand mothers, working another job or not, a little better. I never really thought about it this way until then; I just couldn’t see myself be a mother and not a working woman. Maybe it’s because I’ve always seen my mother work and take care of 3 kids. I don’t know.
I knew that being a mother was super important and I’ve always admired mothers because they have a patience I never thought I had. It always blew my mind to see a mother help their toddlers to get up after they fell, the love and tenderness you can see in the gesture.
But I didn’t understand how being a mother could be enough. I don’t know if I make sense.
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Thank you so much for sharing this. I totally understand where you going with this. I think each to their own and I don’t judge if someone says being a mom is not enough for them, as much as I don’t like to be judged on being a mom and feeling it is enough for now. And this is what it’s all about. Not being judgmental. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
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Absolutely brilliant. It really is an eye-opener. Just last month I had written this – https://anarmchairperfectionist.wordpress.com/2015/01/07/not-just-a-mother/ about my journey in recognizing my mom for who she really is!
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Thank you so much!
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Beautifully written. We all need this little reminder now and again.
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I agree. Thank you!
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That is so great 🙂 Thanks!
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