28 December 2009

As I turned on the telly this afternoon, I saw a glimpse of one of those afternoon talk-shows. They were discussing the ‘Realities of Motherhood'. One young girl had grand dreams for her future - while she did want to finish school and such, her main dream of the future was to raise a family of ten children!

Wouldn't it be lovely to know your daughter had such dreams? But the reason she was on the show was that her parents had brought her in so that she would be talked OUT of it! They were terribly concerned that she would not finish her studies or achieve a college degree.

Statistics were quoted - such things as ‘only 1.4% of women who have had a baby as a teenager ever achieve a college degree', and ‘it costs $148,000 to raise a child - so to raise ten, you'd need $1.4 million dollars!' This young girl wasn't even dating yet! And they did their utmost to completely put her off having a large family

This girl was FIFTEEN! She had no intentions on rushing out and having a baby, but rather had plans to begin motherhood around the age of twenty. She was smart, stable and, having cared for children in daycare, knew a lot about caring for children. She was placed for a day in a house with a Mum and her four children, and was basically ran ragged the whole day, and she was very happy when the day was over. She commented she may just wait a little longer than she had planned to begin her own family after that experience.

Motherhood ‘grows' on you. You don't suddenly have 8 or 10 children at once (well, not unless you are ‘octo-mom', of course!). Children generally arrive one at a time; not to mention by that stage you hopefully have the support of your husband. From what I saw, no mention was made of the importance of the father in the whole situation.

What is wrong with wanting to be a mother? Society stresses so much the attitude of ‘oh, yeh - but what do YOU want to do with YOUR life?' as if motherhood is only a side issue - just a small part of what we do, but does not make us who we are.

I am saddened that we have lost sight of the family unit. Our world had it right at one stage. Men were men; women were women; and children were allowed to be children. We had families - everyone had their place, and for the most part, people were happy. Now, in the pursuit of so-called happiness, people seem to be more miserable than ever. I guess it's inevitable - when people turn away from the Creator's perfect plan for us and try to do things ‘better', we can only fail.

Am I against a woman having a career before a home and family? No - if that is what she desires and is called to do. But if any of my daughters decide to simply marry, have children and be a stay-at-home Mum, I would be just as proud of them as I would if they became a doctor, an award-winning scientist, or a super-hero! How I pray those talk-shows really would put forward the truth, and present a more balanced view - but that's the media, and the world we live in.