…I would say priceless but apparently there’s an actual figure…
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A full-time stay-at-home mother would earn $134,121 a year if paid for all her work, an amount similar to a top U.S. ad executive, a marketing director or a judge, according to a study released Wednesday.
A mother who works outside the home would earn an extra $85,876 annually on top of her actual wages for the work she does at home, according to the study by Waltham, Massachusetts-based compensation experts Salary.com [source]
Note that this is only for American mothers. This figure will probably adjust itself depending on the mother and her environment (country of origin) as well as inflation.
I wanna share this with my working mother, get her all worked up, and watch her pick this up with my father. This is going to be amusing.
And on a serious note, I am never going to get used to the idea to how much women do compared to men, and I swear, this has nothing to do with feminism and the likes. From the early hours of the morning, until she collapses in bed, the working mother is like the energizer bunny, and I don’t get it. I don’t get how she does all the house chorse, and helps the kid with the homework, and finds time to listen to the woes of husband and older children, and cook, and do the damn laundry, and the damn things that keep coming up around the house, as well as go to the clinic, and deal with the patients that call at all hours of the morning, and still smile and not murder anyone in their sleep with a butcher knife.
Forget it, I ain’t doing it!
I would still say priceless… I never saw anyone more selfless than my mother! Mothers are truly selfless, and when you think: whyyyy? What do they get in return? the success of their family? even their pleasue is connected with the welfare of others!
From a wife/mom’s point of view, the pleasure comes in as many ways as the tasks. I know what my kid’s favorite cereals, bowls and spoons are, and when I see their sleepy little faces stumble into the kitchen and light up that I remembered, there is reward.
When they forget to dumpt the sand out of their shoes outside and it gets ground int the carpet, I fuss a bit, but remember that in a few short years they will be gone and I will wish for little messes to clean up.
The selflessness that is learned by doing the mundane creates quality of character that can’t be equaled by education nor career success. One day I cried out to God saying “Is this all I was made for? Endless dishes and missing socks?” I heard His voice so clearly saying “It is a high calling, be faithful, for I am pleased, do it as unto Me”. I know He is watching, and even if hubby and teh kids don’t notice what I do, He does.