Being mothers in modern times!

- 3 min. Reading -

Most of us have a deep appreciation for our mothers that transcends description. As great and dedicated as many fathers are, it is usually our mothers who have the most persistent and pervasive impact on our lives.

And while motherhood is even revered, by many people and in most families, once we leave our homes and enter public life, a remarkable transformation takes place. There, motherhood is seen as a kind of exile or banishment from the important things in life, and as an unfortunate burden that deserves pity and demands ransom.

Mother's Day provides us with an opportunity to reflect on the value of mothers in our own lives. But it should also lead us to reflect on the value of motherhood in general, its importance to our society, and ways in which we might rescue full-time mothers not from motherhood per se, but from the social marginalization that currently accompanies their choice.

A few years ago, mothers and housewives possessed a series of skills that today have totally lost their value.

If we go back even further and think of our grandmothers and mothers of their time, who had it very difficult: No electricity, no washing machine or dryer, microwave oven or dishwasher; No car, no computer, but what about us, modern mothers? Do we have it very easy?

Personally, there are days when I feel like an unpaid taxi driver, I spend so much time taking my children to and from school, from birthday parties, from the madness of the after-school schedule or from friends' houses, that I The hours go by from one side to the other in the car.

But it is that modern mothers do not end here, now in addition to taxi drivers, we are also Community Managers . We need to handle WhatsApp with ease and grace, in addition to many other tools, starting with email, going through Telegram, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and other more specific ones such as Teams, Meets or Google Calendar. Information and school tasks arrive through such different channels that keeping up to date with everything requires a great deal of skill.

Ah, but we are also secretaries, let's not forget that. We keep the agenda of the children, (and that of the husbands, which also counts) we coordinate with other moms staying, parties, group tasks, birthday parties, we go to meetings and tutorials; we know when they are going on an excursion and what they have to bring to the excursion. And of course we also take care of the health of the family, we are up to date with medical check-ups, we go to the pediatrician or the specialist and of course we cannot forget the eye doctor and the dentist, at the very least.

And although in many societies, the role of wife and mother has included an insignia of inferiority and even servitude to men, serving in many cases as a prison and limiting the freedom of women to fully live their vocations, fortunately modern society begins to change thanks in large part to the feminist movements of the 20th century.

Although vestiges of inequality still remain, women now have the legal and social right, and are even encouraged, to abandon or avoid domestic life and pursue their own careers apart from motherhood. In addition, the decision to do so is generally received with applause and social esteem. Women who make such a choice are known as "empowered," "super moms," or women who "have it all."

The funny thing about all this is that according to a recent survey, only 16 percent of women think that being a full-time working mother is best for children. A significant proportion of working mothers are forced by their economic circumstances to contribute to the household income. These women are, in a sense, in a position similar to that of women in earlier periods of society: forced to play roles and perform daily tasks contrary to their wishes. They are not prisoners of their husbands, but of economic pressures that are sometimes magnified by society.

And it is that we forget that full-time motherhood and staying at home, is an activity with social benefits that are difficult to document and that are only felt indirectly and it is for this reason that society tends not to realize its benefits, but the amount of good that a parent does by being there for their child is greater than the amount of good any CEO or world leader can achieve through their work. Because parents play a significant and unique role in the psychological development of our children.

It is important that women have a genuine choice in our own pursuit of happiness and no woman who chooses full-time motherhood should be perceived in a negative light or one who becomes an empowered super mom with a professional life outside the home. it should be unduly limited or judged by social impositions.

From AAIN we want to wish a very happy day to all those mommies who make our world a place full of joy and love.

Happy day moms ❤️