Why it is a blessing for children to have a working mum
Photo Canva.com, ANP, Lex van Lieshout
Christian Life
As a working mum, Chiara does not always have the time to play with her children. Many parents feel guilty about this. But work and the family are no enemies of each other.
Stay up to date with Christian news in Europe? Sign up for CNE's newsletter.
As a family, we have just come through a long flu season. The children got sick one after the other, and it took many days for them to fully recover, so they were home from school for a long time.
Thank God I work from home, so I was able to take care of them. However, I still had to do some work for my job. And instead of being able to play with the kids the whole time, they would see me working on my computer while being instructed to colour, draw and entertain themselves under my supervision.
Idolise
On some occasions, I felt a little guilty about this. And I'm sure I'm not the only working mum with this feeling.
Surely, there are mothers, or even fathers, who idolise their work and career. There are a countless number of children who are neglected in the family because of the parents' work ambitions.
In many cases, parents decide to have children only to achieve a personal goal and then outsource the upbringing and education of their children to babysitters, grandparents, schools and various institutions.
Stay-at-home mother
However, oftentimes, this is not the case, and work is an aspect of the normal routine of a responsible parent who supports the family by his or her job.
The idea of the stay-at-home mother, fully involved in raising children, is actually a more recent cultural construction than we think. Since ancient times, women have always been involved in tending the fields or doing small jobs to support the family, as Proverbs 31 well describes.
So where does this feeling of guilt come from? It may stem from the view that idolises the child in the family. That means that parents should never do anything that does not make the child feel good.
Commitment
Nevertheless, I believe that working parents can be a blessing for their children. Children who see us working realise that being devoted to a job is important.
Work is part of God's calling for men and women. And by that, I mean every type of work. We are not talking about great, dazzling careers but about the call to work to care for His creation, to glorify Him through the vocations and callings He has given us, and to carry out activities that bless the community of which we are a part.
When children have the opportunity to see their parents at work, it is not a lack of care for them. Instead, it can be a way for them to learn to appreciate their parents' commitment to work.
Besides, working parents can be a mirror for children when they encounter problems in life. A job, too, can be an area of tension and problems. And children will notice when you are anxious, nervous or angry because of work. That gives us, working parents, the opportunity to show them how a Christian should deal with tensions in a Godly way.
In short, working mothers are not only a burden to the family, but can be a blessing.
Related Articles
