Just recently Moms Pump Here was featured as a top App for working mothers. There are so many great Apps listed that make life a lot easier for moms. This made me think, "What is a Working Mother?"
Immediately you think of a woman that gets up to take care of her kids in the morning, maybe breast pump to have breast milk ready for her baby while she's gone and then hustle off to her 9-5 desk job. This is definitley the traditional scenerio of a working mom but the term "working mom" now takes on a whole new meaning.
Besides a blatant "supermom" title, working moms now encompass moms who stay at home, moms who work at home and moms who are out of the office on extraordinary terms. Working mothers are much more than a woman who sits in an office.
A stay at home mom (SAHM) IS a working mom. Our patriarchal tendencies frame the life of a stay at home mom as only a mom home with the kids. BUT what women have known for ions is being at home with the children 24/7 is one of the toughest working mom positions to be in. You are taking care of little human beings around the clock, teaching them, caring for the house, a partner and more. There are NO days off given to you from a boss.
A work at home mom (WAHM) IS a working mom. By today's standards this is the woman juggling a business at home while the kids run around in the background screaming. True, this tends to happen and you usually have to apologize to business calls for the kid noise BUT this also means 2 24/7 jobs. You are literally managing your children's lives, the house and your own business from your home around the clock. Once the kids go to sleep you start working again or at the least fall out at your computer trying.
An out of the home working mother is society's standard for women who have children and have a job they go to after dropping the kids to a sitter or school. This is a different type of stress and also the type of working mom where guilt is very present. You have to work to pay the bills. You have to work to still maintain a piece of who you are. You have to work. Sometimes that means dropping off your crying baby, pumping breast milk for hours before leaving for work, dealing with a demanding boss and bringing that stress home. This is not easy but you make it happen somehow.
A mom who works under extraordinary circumstances IS a working mom. The extraordinary category includes women who are gone for long periods of time away from their children - Women who put their lives at risk, women who work at home and at the office, and women who are quite literally changing the world. These are the soldiers, the explorers, the entertainers, the politicians, and the moms who are contantly pushing the envelope of what it is to be a working mom.
ALL of these categories ARE WORKING MOTHERS. BUT they are also women, human beings trying their best to make it all work, loving their children the best they can while loving themselves. These are women that laugh at balance and at every angle of their life manage to somehow make it work. Moms are the oil in our society's engine. Beyond reproducing we are also getting some serious sh*t done....
