| I want to see if I'm in one of the latest glamour | | | | satisfying their needs and raising them to become |
| magazines on sale this week. I mean honestly, I | | | | responsible adults. |
| deserve to be on one of those pages. After all ... I | | | | When we stop to look at all the careers a mother |
| am a woman. Right! But, unfortunately, just an | | | | practices without qualification on paper, we have |
| ordinary woman. | | | | to take a deep breath and then pause. |
| I can't get past the latest "Desperate Housewife" | | | | Motherhood entails being an accountant, a sports |
| advertisement with all those ladies in red. Is that | | | | agent or manager, sports coach, or promotion |
| really what the stereotypical desperate housewife | | | | manager. It also requires experience in nursing, |
| looks like? After-hours, I assume! I mean with all | | | | psychology and health education; being a dietician |
| the domestic work she has to do for the day, | | | | and nutritionist. A mother should have her own |
| the outfit seems rather far-fetched. | | | | mini pharmacy, and have a license to be an |
| Not that all women are just housewives. They | | | | emergency driver to hospitals or the veterinarian. |
| can do the chores before work, go to gym and | | | | She can be an amusement and recreation officer, |
| find themselves a shower away from their plush | | | | taxi driver, video camera operator, photographer |
| office and executive chair. Like in the soaps on | | | | and travel agent. A mother is a hairdresser, |
| TV. | | | | cosmetologist, fashion consultant, and tailor. She is |
| So often people ask women what they do. The | | | | an animal trainer, housekeeper, landlady, fence |
| answers vary from sole supporter of a family to | | | | erector, interior decorator and landscape artist. |
| so many different categories that housewife and | | | | Mothers bake, cook, order out, host, serve and |
| executive are merely small fractions in the | | | | clean. They are laundry specialists, painters, filing |
| equation. They may be extremes in your eyes | | | | clerks, social workers, answering services and |
| because either you're educated with a certificate | | | | public relations officers. They are data base |
| or degree ... or, you're just a housewife doing | | | | administrators, home management advisors, |
| menial chores and raising your children. But wait ... | | | | teachers, pastors, producers, judges, lawyers and |
| there's more! | | | | financial analysts. |
| There's the type of woman that actually works | | | | But above all, mothers are women. And each |
| long, exhausting hours without pay. Hubby brings | | | | woman has her own load and burden to carry. |
| in the money and ... let's say no more. Then | | | | Perhaps it's infidelity, cancer, poverty ... |
| there's the type of woman who works long hours | | | | With Mother's Day comes the annual family |
| doing the mundane, pedestrian chores and her | | | | blessings that each member bestows upon her ... |
| share in the community. She earns money baking, | | | | often not to genuinely give thanks or show |
| making clothes, typing or looking after other | | | | respect ... but, merely to uphold a public holiday. It |
| women's children while they work. There are no | | | | also helps her the next day to answer those |
| benefits or material rewards ... just the basic fee | | | | inquisitive questions of how her family spoilt her |
| to keep her supporting the family. | | | | on the one specific and yet very small and |
| The woman that spends her time in the field | | | | insignificant day of her year and life. Compared to |
| cultivating crops and looking after the livestock is | | | | the laboriousness of her existence, one Mother's |
| also somewhere in this equation. | | | | Day is just not enough. |
| And somehow it's these women who are never | | | | There are good mothers and selfish mothers, |
| seen in magazines or on television. Unless it's in an | | | | healthy mothers and ... But, let's not spend any |
| advertisement of a product or service that the | | | | time going there! That's content for a whole new |
| ordinary women may need to make their lives | | | | article. It's in being who we are to the best of our |
| easier. And these ordinary women are not the | | | | ability that really makes the difference. |
| desperate housewives you see on television, | | | | Give respect, honour, love, compassion, |
| though they share the same brand name. | | | | commitment and understanding. Make every day |
| Housewife or executive, teacher or minister, they | | | | mother's day. And do note there are no capital |
| all have one thing in common: motherhood (if that | | | | letters attached to the day, because it's not the |
| is the choice they decide to make). And | | | | day that should be celebrated, but the woman |
| motherhood in itself is a career. A mother has to | | | | behind all her sacrifices ... |
| look out for the emotional welfare of her children | | | | |