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The position of 'motherhood' is the oldest occupation in the history of mankind. It is the "mother" of occupations, if you will. Mothers have been given the job of carrying, delivering and nurturing the next life. In most cases, it is the mother that is responsible for protection, nourishment and guidance. Men most definitely have their place in the rearing of a child, and it does not go unnoticed. Fathers have their position and specialty in the world of procreation and rearing, but I believe that throughout history, the position of motherhood has been one that is laughed at, mocked or under-rated. The occupation of "life bearer, deliverer and protector" was not just a job found at your local job fair; it was created by God and given only to women.
Oprah, to me (and I'm sure millions of viewers), is the mother of all talk shows. Oprah remains one of the most powerful women in the world. According to forbes.com the Oprah show, "...her namesake show, where she stresses spirituality and re-invention, has topped the daytime talk show ratings for 21 years, garnering 48 million viewers per week in the US.". She connects powerful shows providing help, knowledge, information or celebration to millions of viewers around the world. Even Oprah shared a thoughtful and profound quote honoring moms from a show called Great Moms III: "Mothers are the great spiritual teachers of the world." (http://www.oprah.com/). Those words are coming from a media mogul, on one of the most viewed talk shows in the world...and she's never been a mother. That's gotta tell you something about motherhood. An treasured honor given by a well-respected, famous and intelligent powerhouse! On behalf of millions of moms, thank you for always recognizing us, Oprah!
If we look at the position of 'mother', they are teachers. They are spiritual teachers, emotional teachers, organizational teachers and life coaches. In this age, we know the pressure is higher for mothers at work. Their daily schedule could possibly mimic the following: up early morning, wake up children, dress and feed children, drop off children to day care or school, mentor and handle daily office drama at employment, work at their employment, plan for the evening, pick up kids, nourish family, put on their life coach and teacher's hat for child's needs, put on wife hat for husband's needs, maintain 'family' life, clean house, sleep. The whole day is most likely laden with some type of stress, and they welcome it with open arms,. Why? Because they are mothers and it’s what they do best, being the multi-tasking gurus that they are. As the years roll by, the requirements of motherhood seem harder to meet when a dual income becomes a must to survive for most Americans. In these times we are seeing tapped out moms trying to do their best, and the demands of work escalating to levels that could wear a great employee down to pure exhaustion. Times have changed, but the position of motherhood still remains the same; the bond and love from mother to child doesn't change and neither will the innate desire to be available to our children when necessary.
It seems as if something spiritually happens to a mother once their baby is born. Not only does the mother receive a spiritual connection with her baby, she seems to be suddenly connected to other children. I remember when I was pregnant, a girlfriend told me "watch out, you'll start to see kids be drawn to you. They'll just walk up to you for no reason or think you are their mother for a second...just watch". I thought my girlfriend was ridiculous. I never had any child or baby interested in coming near me before my pregnancy and I certainly didn't think that because a baby is within me, someone else's child will gravitate toward me. How absurd. Just silly nonsense, but then it happened. I was walking in a mall and a little toddler ran right up to my leg and held onto it. I looked down and was shocked. He looked up at me after 30 seconds of leg holding and realized I wasn't his mom. He smiled and then walked to the other pair of legs just a few feet away from me. Of course I thought that incident was purely coincidental... until it happened again with a different child on a different day. I began to notice every baby I passed by smiled, waved or flirted with me. Astonishing! What I thought to be a mere old wives' tale rang true for me. There seems to be an invisible 'umbilical cord' attached from the mother to their child, and a new autopilot is spiritually installed within the fabric of the new mom, allowing her to conquer all circumstances that is current and new for her child and all children around her. A study called The Motherhood Study (http://www.motherhoodproject.org/) featured a survey of over 2,000 mothers (sampling a diverse demographic of the U.S. population) they found "More than 92% of the mothers...surveyed agreed with the statement, “After becoming a mother, I found myself caring more about the well-being of all children, not just my own.”
Salary.com™ created a "hybrid job description" with over 10 jobs that make up the job titles that best match a mom's definition of her work to be the following (in order of hours spent per week): housekeeper, day care center teacher, cook, computer operator, laundry machine operator, janitor, facilities manager, van driver, CEO and psychologist. Bill Coleman, senior vice president of compensation at Salary.com™ says "It is an eye-opener for many people when they see the real market value of the work moms perform. This year, by adding information about the compensation for Working Moms, we hope to expand the recognition of just how hard all moms are working and of the economic value they bring to society."
Salary.com™’s Annual Valuation of Mom's Job revealed a stay-at-home mom's salary is $138,095. Wow - six-figures people! Bill continues, "Mom works multiple jobs and rarely gets a break from the action, working an average of 52 hours of overtime. The lower than average merit increase reflects that many of the 'mom jobs' are not as highly valued as the management, non-exempt and executive jobs performed by most US employees." According to their study, working moms logged over 9 hours of overtime. This gives them an average of a 49-hour mom work week beyond their full time paying jobs. Complete results and information can be found on http://mom.salary.com/.
Another website in support of moms called M.O.T.H.E.R.S. (Mothers Ought To Have Equal Rights) questions the U.S. support for mothers saying "...why shouldn't American mothers and children have the same economic support that moms and kids do in Britain, Canada, France, Belgium, Holland, Scandinavia?"(http://www.mothersoughttohaveequalrights.org/). A very good question. The website supports the full spectrum of today's mom and is a valuable read if you are a mom.
The title of 'mother' is still on deck, waiting to receive a much bigger welcome of its value than what it has been given. Hearing passers by say "the hardest job in the world is being a mother" is great to hear, but the action to provide changes to help today's mom is still on hold. Hopefully within our lifetime we will see a wave of change to help mothers stay the fascinating employees of Life that they are; helping working moms accomplish all their goals without judgment when she can't stay late at work because of a parent-teacher meeting, and viewing a stay-at-home mom as honorable instead of 'just a mom'. If only Salary.com's 'salary' of $138,095 became a real deal... a new found respect could possibly begin! Until then, this mom will just keep on keepin' on, because any mother knows, it's just what we do.
Oprah, to me (and I'm sure millions of viewers), is the mother of all talk shows. Oprah remains one of the most powerful women in the world. According to forbes.com the Oprah show, "...her namesake show, where she stresses spirituality and re-invention, has topped the daytime talk show ratings for 21 years, garnering 48 million viewers per week in the US.". She connects powerful shows providing help, knowledge, information or celebration to millions of viewers around the world. Even Oprah shared a thoughtful and profound quote honoring moms from a show called Great Moms III: "Mothers are the great spiritual teachers of the world." (http://www.oprah.com/). Those words are coming from a media mogul, on one of the most viewed talk shows in the world...and she's never been a mother. That's gotta tell you something about motherhood. An treasured honor given by a well-respected, famous and intelligent powerhouse! On behalf of millions of moms, thank you for always recognizing us, Oprah!
If we look at the position of 'mother', they are teachers. They are spiritual teachers, emotional teachers, organizational teachers and life coaches. In this age, we know the pressure is higher for mothers at work. Their daily schedule could possibly mimic the following: up early morning, wake up children, dress and feed children, drop off children to day care or school, mentor and handle daily office drama at employment, work at their employment, plan for the evening, pick up kids, nourish family, put on their life coach and teacher's hat for child's needs, put on wife hat for husband's needs, maintain 'family' life, clean house, sleep. The whole day is most likely laden with some type of stress, and they welcome it with open arms,. Why? Because they are mothers and it’s what they do best, being the multi-tasking gurus that they are. As the years roll by, the requirements of motherhood seem harder to meet when a dual income becomes a must to survive for most Americans. In these times we are seeing tapped out moms trying to do their best, and the demands of work escalating to levels that could wear a great employee down to pure exhaustion. Times have changed, but the position of motherhood still remains the same; the bond and love from mother to child doesn't change and neither will the innate desire to be available to our children when necessary.
It seems as if something spiritually happens to a mother once their baby is born. Not only does the mother receive a spiritual connection with her baby, she seems to be suddenly connected to other children. I remember when I was pregnant, a girlfriend told me "watch out, you'll start to see kids be drawn to you. They'll just walk up to you for no reason or think you are their mother for a second...just watch". I thought my girlfriend was ridiculous. I never had any child or baby interested in coming near me before my pregnancy and I certainly didn't think that because a baby is within me, someone else's child will gravitate toward me. How absurd. Just silly nonsense, but then it happened. I was walking in a mall and a little toddler ran right up to my leg and held onto it. I looked down and was shocked. He looked up at me after 30 seconds of leg holding and realized I wasn't his mom. He smiled and then walked to the other pair of legs just a few feet away from me. Of course I thought that incident was purely coincidental... until it happened again with a different child on a different day. I began to notice every baby I passed by smiled, waved or flirted with me. Astonishing! What I thought to be a mere old wives' tale rang true for me. There seems to be an invisible 'umbilical cord' attached from the mother to their child, and a new autopilot is spiritually installed within the fabric of the new mom, allowing her to conquer all circumstances that is current and new for her child and all children around her. A study called The Motherhood Study (http://www.motherhoodproject.org/) featured a survey of over 2,000 mothers (sampling a diverse demographic of the U.S. population) they found "More than 92% of the mothers...surveyed agreed with the statement, “After becoming a mother, I found myself caring more about the well-being of all children, not just my own.”
Salary.com™ created a "hybrid job description" with over 10 jobs that make up the job titles that best match a mom's definition of her work to be the following (in order of hours spent per week): housekeeper, day care center teacher, cook, computer operator, laundry machine operator, janitor, facilities manager, van driver, CEO and psychologist. Bill Coleman, senior vice president of compensation at Salary.com™ says "It is an eye-opener for many people when they see the real market value of the work moms perform. This year, by adding information about the compensation for Working Moms, we hope to expand the recognition of just how hard all moms are working and of the economic value they bring to society."
Salary.com™’s Annual Valuation of Mom's Job revealed a stay-at-home mom's salary is $138,095. Wow - six-figures people! Bill continues, "Mom works multiple jobs and rarely gets a break from the action, working an average of 52 hours of overtime. The lower than average merit increase reflects that many of the 'mom jobs' are not as highly valued as the management, non-exempt and executive jobs performed by most US employees." According to their study, working moms logged over 9 hours of overtime. This gives them an average of a 49-hour mom work week beyond their full time paying jobs. Complete results and information can be found on http://mom.salary.com/.
Another website in support of moms called M.O.T.H.E.R.S. (Mothers Ought To Have Equal Rights) questions the U.S. support for mothers saying "...why shouldn't American mothers and children have the same economic support that moms and kids do in Britain, Canada, France, Belgium, Holland, Scandinavia?"(http://www.mothersoughttohaveequalrights.org/). A very good question. The website supports the full spectrum of today's mom and is a valuable read if you are a mom.
The title of 'mother' is still on deck, waiting to receive a much bigger welcome of its value than what it has been given. Hearing passers by say "the hardest job in the world is being a mother" is great to hear, but the action to provide changes to help today's mom is still on hold. Hopefully within our lifetime we will see a wave of change to help mothers stay the fascinating employees of Life that they are; helping working moms accomplish all their goals without judgment when she can't stay late at work because of a parent-teacher meeting, and viewing a stay-at-home mom as honorable instead of 'just a mom'. If only Salary.com's 'salary' of $138,095 became a real deal... a new found respect could possibly begin! Until then, this mom will just keep on keepin' on, because any mother knows, it's just what we do.
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