So it is the official end of summer and school is in full swing this week. This is also a long weekend and I have to say Labor day always makes me think not of the workers that we celebrate but more of the mothers out there who endured their own labor and every day continue to work through it all on a Labour of Love!
Motherhood is one of the hardest and most under paid jobs out there. If there is any Mom out there who finds it easy and is getting paid, please email me ASAP and let me know your secret. For me it is a job I truly love and I know I have said it before and I will continue saying it even as my kids grow up and move on in their own lives which is still years away.
We as moms are also under appreciated. Our families often forget about all the things we do because of all the things we do. I have been watching the Lifetime show “The Week the Woman Left,” and see how men are able to deal with their wives not being there. I know that it is over dramatized on the show but it is still humorous to watch a man trying to figure out how to put a diaper on. My own father in law, who was just here, asked every time I left if the boy had a clean diaper because he didn't want to deal with it.
Just the other day I ran my daughter to school and both my husband and father in law stayed with the two year old. As soon as I walked in, my son ran over to tell me he had poop and needed a change. He didn't ask them to do it because well Mom will do it. My husband apologized and said he didn't realize he had it or he would of changed him- yeah right because I have heard that tons of times!
Being a mom can be a very labor intensive job at many times. We have to be everything for our kids from a being a clown to make them laugh to a doctor fixing the boo-boo they have after they fell. We as moms are rarely off the job and clock in from the moment we get up to the moment we go to bed even if our kids are fast asleep. The first thought in our heads is the kids as is the last one.
We worry about their health, are the eating enough or right. We think we should limit sugar but still want to give that cookie because we love them. We have to enforce rules that might seem silly but it is for their own safety. We do so much in our day that we often forget about ourselves but we do it all because we love them.
It doesn't matter how old your child is or where they live. My mother tells me she worries all the time about me because that is what mother's just do. Our parents though worry, do know we are surviving and often thriving still worry because they know how hard being a parent is at all times.
So on this Labor Day I wish all the moms a good one for working the hardest yet most rewarding job out there. Our children are wonderful assets we all have and yes their our days we struggle but mostly we punch through it to see the joy on our kids faces. Have a Happy Labour of Love Day!!
Rebecca Benson is a League City stay at home mom who has lived here since 2003 when her husband took a job on the International Space Station program. She followed soon after working on the same program for nearly six years when she started staying home with the kids. Rebecca loves to craft, scrapbook, sew, and embrace motherhood. Rebecca has a blog called Mommiedom ((http://queenmommiedom.blogspot.com/) where she talks about all the things in her life not just those “confessions”.
