MOM
“All that I am, or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel mother,” By Abraham Lincoln. Scholars believe that Lincoln most likely wrote those words about his first mother, Nancy Hanks, who passed away in childbirth when Lincoln was only nine years of age, in the great sorrow of his young years.
“I’m just a stay-at-home mom.”
During the 1980s, I remember some women bragging, “I’m a working woman!” This was a put-down to the stay-at-home moms, but they endured it. The truth is, I have never met a woman who does not work. Some work at home and some outside the home, but they all work.
Woe to people who are old-fashioned and go against the current of our modern society. The Bible says, “That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home…” (Titus 2:4–5). No, I am not judging. I only quoted the Bible. Nor did I interpret it—one can do that himself. Obviously, some moms are forced to work outside the home for different reasons, like the mom whose husband ran off.
Allow me to share an adolescent’s point of view. When I was 14, my mom started to work outside the home; she did not need to but wanted to. From that point on, something was missing in our home. When I was older, I realized it was harder on my three siblings, who were all younger than I. Mom was gone when we got home. Yes, many have it much worse, but it bothered me to hear my mom talk about her success and the money she was making. What is this extra money for—a nicer house. nicer car, or nicer clothes? It is easy to deceive ourselves. I have. Children say, “Mom, we miss you.” They don’t ask, “How much money did you make?”
I miss my children now; I wish they were still around our dinner table.
So how has modern society been doing? Moms choosing to work outside the home and dads that run off are only a couple of the many problems of today, but it all adds up. Today (August 3, 2019) in El Paso, Texas, someone killed 20 people, plus many were wounded. There are several of these mass shootings each year but not when I was growing up. There were no tent cities for the poor hooked on drugs; no one was begging on the streets—no one. And they say America is richer now than she has ever been. I think we have more money now, but we lost something more valuable.
OK, maybe that mom was insensitive when she said, “What kind of mother chooses work over being a good parent?” But I think she was on to something.
“For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.”
—William Ross Wallace (1819–1881)
“All that I am, or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel mother,” By Abraham Lincoln. Scholars believe that Lincoln most likely wrote those words about his first mother, Nancy Hanks, who passed away in childbirth when Lincoln was only nine years of age, in the great sorrow of his young years.
“I’m just a stay-at-home mom.”
During the 1980s, I remember some women bragging, “I’m a working woman!” This was a put-down to the stay-at-home moms, but they endured it. The truth is, I have never met a woman who does not work. Some work at home and some outside the home, but they all work.
Woe to people who are old-fashioned and go against the current of our modern society. The Bible says, “That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home…” (Titus 2:4–5). No, I am not judging. I only quoted the Bible. Nor did I interpret it—one can do that himself. Obviously, some moms are forced to work outside the home for different reasons, like the mom whose husband ran off.
Allow me to share an adolescent’s point of view. When I was 14, my mom started to work outside the home; she did not need to but wanted to. From that point on, something was missing in our home. When I was older, I realized it was harder on my three siblings, who were all younger than I. Mom was gone when we got home. Yes, many have it much worse, but it bothered me to hear my mom talk about her success and the money she was making. What is this extra money for—a nicer house. nicer car, or nicer clothes? It is easy to deceive ourselves. I have. Children say, “Mom, we miss you.” They don’t ask, “How much money did you make?”
I miss my children now; I wish they were still around our dinner table.
So how has modern society been doing? Moms choosing to work outside the home and dads that run off are only a couple of the many problems of today, but it all adds up. Today (August 3, 2019) in El Paso, Texas, someone killed 20 people, plus many were wounded. There are several of these mass shootings each year but not when I was growing up. There were no tent cities for the poor hooked on drugs; no one was begging on the streets—no one. And they say America is richer now than she has ever been. I think we have more money now, but we lost something more valuable.
OK, maybe that mom was insensitive when she said, “What kind of mother chooses work over being a good parent?” But I think she was on to something.
“For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.”
—William Ross Wallace (1819–1881)
Poem
Just yesterday it seems my tots
Were on the floor
And I wiped, countless finger prints
From window pane and door.
I kissed a thousand tears
And darned sock after sock
And tried to keep pace with the hands
That raced around the clock.
And often when at end of day
Too tired to sleep in bed I lay
I’d think how nice when children grown
My time again should be my own.
So now I sit and rock alone,
My hands at rest, the work all done.
No little tots upon the floor
No finger prints upon the door.
No socks to mend no hurts to kiss
Ah, me! How could I know I’d miss
The very things I grudged to do when I was young and sturdy too.
Dear God, if only there might be
Someone who needed me.
Author unknown
MONEY (see FINANCE)
Just yesterday it seems my tots
Were on the floor
And I wiped, countless finger prints
From window pane and door.
I kissed a thousand tears
And darned sock after sock
And tried to keep pace with the hands
That raced around the clock.
And often when at end of day
Too tired to sleep in bed I lay
I’d think how nice when children grown
My time again should be my own.
So now I sit and rock alone,
My hands at rest, the work all done.
No little tots upon the floor
No finger prints upon the door.
No socks to mend no hurts to kiss
Ah, me! How could I know I’d miss
The very things I grudged to do when I was young and sturdy too.
Dear God, if only there might be
Someone who needed me.
Author unknown
MONEY (see FINANCE)
