March 12 is National Working Moms’ Day! This day celebrates all moms who work so hard each day to impact the lives of their children for the better.
My mother stayed home with me until I went into kindergarten. She entered the classroom herself then and has been working outside of the home ever since.
My formative years include memories of her working on grading papers, making bulletin boards, cutting out projects for students, and also studying. She went back to school when I was in middle school and showed me just what it was like to be a hard-working mom with studying added to her to-do list, as well.
I knew she was tired, but she still cooked every night. She still did the laundry, cleaned up, and made time to even play video games with me, watch our favorite movies together, and listen to me tell her all about my favorite shows and books.
Now that I’ve been a working mom for almost eight years now, I look back in awe at what my mother did. She had different circumstances than me and more to contend with than I do as a working mom. It was a different time period when I was growing up and there weren’t as many devices to help make mothering easier. She also didn’t have any help from extended family, like I do.
There are a lot of days in which I collapse in bed bone-tired and I don’t know how I’m going to do it the next day, but I do. I think of my mother and how much more she had to deal with than I do and I think to myself, if she could do it, then I can do it.
Being a working mom is challenging. I am so very grateful as an educator that I get the summers off. I don’t know how other working moms do it without having that break.
Some days are more challenging than others. Some days I get attitudes from my students and attitudes from my son. I go from being a pseudo mother of middle schoolers to even more mothering when I get home.
Some days I grab a second cup of coffee at 4 pm, so I can make it through the evening of the other tasks I have to do, which can include more schoolwork. I’m up at 5 am to get ready for work. Sometimes the dark under-eye circles are even darker because of a fussy baby who has been up all night. Most Monday mornings, I’m even more tired than I was on Friday evening, because of the household chores and schoolwork I’ve done over the weekend. It’s not easy.
Add in teaching in a pandemic and it can make this task of being a working mom daunting.
Yet, it’s a blessing. I can bring in income for my family. I get to impact lives while my two children watch. As an educator, I get the summers and most holidays off with them.
My children get to watch me do something I’m passionate about. I hope I can inspire my children to work hard, to persevere through the daunting tasks they might be too tired to do, and to see women as capable of a lot! I hope I can inspire them like my mom inspired me.
“What you look for, you will find,” is one of favorite quotes. With this in mind, let’s look for all the tiny and big blessings of being a working mom. Let’s always look for the positives of this role we have been blessed with.
