Motherhood, works, and contribution to society

Since the start of our pregnancy journey (yup, my wife is expecting ), we have been using this book called “Prayerfully Expecting” to pray together, it’s a nine month novena. Do you think nine month pregnancy is a coincident with the word novena which means “nine”? hehe

Anyway, I found the following quote from the Bishops of Kenya (page 68 of the book) as very interesting. It’s about motherhood, working, and how she contributes to society , enjoy it:

It is often regarded as the norm in our present-day society that both father and mother be employed outside the home. Such an attitude needs to be carefully reconsidered. It should be understood that the most important work a woman has to do is to provide the proper rearing and upbringing of her children. A woman who is devoted to her home and her family is, in fact, working in a very real sense and making a very real contribution to the development of the country. Let it not be thought that the process of nation building takes place only outside the home. The woman who gives her time and talents to her home and family is not depriving her family by not earning a salary. On the contrary, she is making a very significant contribution to her children in a way no money can supply.

When both parents are working away from the home, the children are often left in the care of other children. This is a twofold injustice: it is unfair to those in charge and to those who have to be tended. Even when competent persons are entrusted with the care of children, they are not adequate substitutes for the parents. The thinking should be towards providing the fathers of families with wages sufficient to support the family, so that it is not necessary for the mother to be a wage earner too.

– Bishops of Kenya, Joint Pastoral Letters, 1979

I like the last sentence, do you? hehe :p

--originally appeared in http://kurniawano.wordpress.com--