Just Another Mother's Day Column
It’s almost Mother’s Day so you know we’re due for one of those token Mother’s Day columns. You know the type, where the writer outlines all the things moms do and thinks of creative ways to explain their tireless work.
They’ll list the amount of laundry washed in tons, the quantity of dishes done in hours, the time spent cooking or cleaning in days to try and get the point across. But to really drive home the truth, they’ll put a price tag on all these tasks.
For the hours, type of work, and scope of work the average stay-at-home mom should make $162,000 per year according to Salary.com’s 2018 calculations. That is crazy! But not in the way you think.
That a stay-at-home mom’s (or any mom’s) value would land in the six-figure-salary range isn’t what should be shocking. It’s that as a society we’ve largely decided the only things of value are those things that are of economic or business worth.
The juxtaposition between career and mom highlights our values. Those two aren’t mutually exclusive but they certainly are used to refer to different sides of the same coin at best. However, if you look up the word career in Webster’s (definition 3) it says, “a field for or pursuit of consecutive progressive achievement especially in public, professional, or business life.”
If raising kids is not a consecutively progressing achievement in public life what is?
The fact that the only way (or at least the best way) to explain value in our society is to speak in monetary terms should be a wake up call.
So, the most meaningful calling of all time, the most important calling too when you’re talking about the continuation of human life, is discounted because of...capitalism?
Individually even the most avaricious will acknowledge there are things of value that aren’t worth anything monetarily (Rosebud, anyone?). But I guess, as long as we pause on the second Sunday in May, buy a card, buy some flowers, and buy a gift we’ll feel like we’ve duly acknowledged Mom for everything she is and does.
Much like that Salary.com calculation, I don’t think this cuts it. When they quantified the mother job they determined moms were “working” 96hrs/week. I don’t understand how this number can ever be below 168 hrs/week (in my wife’s case x 5).
When it comes to quantifying the value of motherhood -- we’re always going to come up short. So instead of trying let’s just say thanks to all the moms out there. They’ve certainly earned that.