Full-time job

Today we celebrate Mother's Day in Poland and this is a special post - a tribute to my mum who has given all her life to us.

I still remember when last year I was talking to my law friends about what we might want to do if we don't become lawyers. I said that I wouldn't be a stay-at-home mother (SAHM) to which my friend replied: "You are a disgrace to women!"

Research has shown that if women were to be paid for their work at home, they would need to be paid a six-digit figure ($130,000) a year. And this is only with one child. SAHMs do so much. They are nurses, tutors,cooks, chauffeurs, cleaners, and so on. But as mothers are not paid, it's invisible labour. Priceless yet unpaid.

When I hear people saying that staying at home with children (whether it is a woman or a man doing it) is a waste of time/career opportunities/talents, my blood boils inside of me. Do you mean that this work is of no value?

Such comments drive me absolutely crazy, because it's seems like becoming a SAHM is a wrong choice. But, for goodness sake, we live in a society where everyone is supposed to make their own choices. If mine happens to be staying at home with my little children and giving all my time to them, why should anyone despise me for this? This is some kind of modern paranoia.

I hate the fact that the world makes me feel that if I choose to be a SAHM, I would miss out on something in life. I wouldn't. Indeed, I would get so much more.

My mum stopped working when my younger brother was born, even though she was damn good at what she was doing at the time and she was really sought-after in the profession. I don't think she missed out on her life. She seems rather happy about her experience.

Here, there is an interesting article about how hard it might be to stay at home with children. Not because of a financial strain on the family, lost career opportunities or anything of that sort. Because of the contempt that women so often experience, sadly also from other women.