Once upon a time, there was a mystique to working one’s own land. Owning a farm was considered by a large part of society to be the pinnacle of achievement—you’d “arrived” once you obtained acreage. Hard work was a virtue, and an aspiration.
I doubt that I have to tell you that isn’t the mentality today. Most of us have learned to work just enough to get by. Even in motherhood, sometimes it’s easy to let the “okay” (PBS) supplant the “good” (playing with your kids).
There’s no way around it: motherhood—maintaining the home, providing meals, rearing children to become productive adults, sometimes even providing income for the family—is hard work. Even if we do just enough to get by, sometimes the work of motherhood is emotionally and physically exhausting.
So sometimes motherhood gets a bad rap. But you know what? I think we had it right centuries ago—though it’s often not fun or even interesting, hard work is good for us. It makes us grow and makes us stronger.
And, honestly, I have to hope that anything that requires this much effort can only be worth every ounce of myself that I put into it.
What do you think? What have you learned from the hard work of motherhood? How have you grown as a mother?
Photo by Sasha Wolff
4 replies on “What ever happened to hard work?”
i totally agree. ANYTHING worth accomplishing is going to require work. There’s no way around it. The challenge is to try and make that work enjoyable. and it IS a challenge. In fact, that might be work too, of the mental, emotional, and spiritual variety!
ps. totally love the photo. Reminds me of WWII posters…
so in my email, I only saw the top of the picture and thought, is that Jordan flexing?? But it wasn’t you…I scrolled down. It was quite entertaining.
I sooo agree with you. Hard work is what keeps me satisfied because in a way, you feel you “earned” it more than someone given everything on a silver platter. Hard work makes me a better person.