Where Have All The Mother’s Gone? Mothering Use To Be So Easy

When most of us hear about a job, we think about a job in the 9-to-5-working world. Who thinks about the job a wife and mother does daily? As mothers, we don't have a job description laid out in front of us, but we do know we are more than qualified for each position we encounter daily. We have become so accustomed to thinking that the only important job is a career in the corporate world. We forget about the most important job, that of being a wife and mother in the home. Most of us want to be out in the world where all the so-called action is.

I am not denouncing anyone who works outside of the home, because God places us in many situations at different seasons in our lives. However, when you accept the important role of wife and mother, your life should change to accommodate your family's needs. You have to be aware of your calling as wife and mother.

Frequently, our little paycheck is not the problem; the problem is our lack of wisdom and understanding of being a proper steward over that paycheck.

Why have Christian and non-Christian women left their homes for careers? 1) Women are not being instructed clearly in the Word of God. Instead, women have been encouraged to go with the culture. 2) They think to be important; they have to be out there in the working world. I believe since so many women work outside the home, we have more broken homes and rebellious children, more kids shooting kids, and more kids crying out, "Somebody love me"! Right now, marriages are failing at the rate of over 50 percent. More than 60 percent of our children are being raised in single-family homes. We even have teenage couples taking their own lives, simply because they can't abide by their parents rules.

I suggest you take time out to write a simple letter to yourself. Ask yourself what in life do you desire for you and your family? Write out goals, dreams, and visions. Be reasonable with the timing of your goals. Don't feel pressured by feeling you must accomplish them quickly.

A new generation of career women says women are less inclined to juggle career and motherhood at this time, according to the Des Moines Register, "Family now, career later" article, August 5, 2001. The high-stress, have-it all attitudes are being replaced in many younger women with a belief that career and family should be taken one at a time. A lot of mothers are just maxed out! Some younger women are watching older women and saying, "I don't want my life to be like that." The number of children who are cared for by their married mothers at home while their fathers work has grown significantly over recent years, according to the latest from the Census Bureau.

According to Time magazine, -"The Case for Staying Home" March 22, 2004, when moms are caught between the pressures of the workplace and the demands of being a mom, more women are sticking with the kids. The percentage of working women with infants fell recently for the first time since government began tracking the rise of mothers in the labor force nearly three decades ago. No matter how you slice it, more mothers are enjoying the slower pace and are able to answer the simple questions their children ask. Despite many sayings, a lot of the women that step out of their careers find expected delights on the home front, not to mention the enormous relief of no longer worrying about shortchanging their kids.

Where there is a choice, many women with children are choosing motherhood. Many are simply staying in the home until their children reach school age. Some women choose part-time work or projects to do in their home. Other women choose to job share.

In 1994, around 9.3 million children younger than 15 had stay-at-home married mothers and working fathers, according to "Children's Living Arrangements and Characteristics," March 2002 – U.S. Census Bureau. By 2002, the number of these children rose to over 11 million.

If we are honest with ourselves, most of us do not even like our jobs. A recent poll showed that 90 percent of working women do not even care for their jobs. Yet 50 percent of babies are currently in childcare. Now isn't that a situation? Seventy-five percent of women with children over the age of six have a job away from the home. We place our family responsibilities on hold, we take our child/children to childcare, we complain about our positions on the job, and we rush home to enjoy maybe two or three hours with our family before preparing for the next cycle. Tell me, what is wrong with this picture? The enemy Satan just sits back and looks at us in the world of hustle and bustle, while our children suffer.

More than 59 percent of teens come home to an empty home. Some parents feel teens will be okay home alone. Trusting a 7-year-old home alone may be a lot easier than trusting a 17-year-old. Proverbs 29:15 tells us that "The rod and rebuke give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.

I read a study done by Edelman Financial Services and found that the mom at home is worth big bucks. Based on salary data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics, trade groups, human resources, and staffing firms, it compiled the median annual salary for the typical mom at home performing the services of raising children, cooking, housecleaning, pet care, dispensing medicine, attending meetings, providing transportation, managing finances, assisting homework, maintaining the family schedule, being on call 24/7, and resolving problems. The work fell into more than 15 key occupations. Edelman estimated that a mother's worth is about $508,700 per year – more than $42,000 a month.

So I encourage you if you have a dream or passion to work from your home, don't gve up. Be persistent and determined to be home for your family while bringing an income in at the same time. You can do it!