“My mother has a difficult job, and although she likes it overall, she works late, and after a day’s work she doesn’t even have the strength for a simple conversation with me,” a six-year-old girl told me one time. She then added in a sad voice: “I would be happy if my mother stayed at home, waited for her husband, cooked delicious meals and spent more time with me. Instead my parents are so passionate about work that they do not care about anything else, not even me … “
People say that our day and age has two faults: irresponsibility and workaholism. The first one cannot be persuaded, the second does not have a brake pedal. And it’s hard not to agree with this. Workaholics always work and find a way to do it everywhere: on vacation, on the road, during dinner, and even while raising children (or so they think). Workaholics piously believe that by devoting 20 hours a day to work they can fill a spiritual void. They want to earn as much money as possible and sometimes are not able to do something other than work or switch off. Everything around them is work, work, work…
Young mothers today hurry to get out of maternity leave in order to avoid everyday chores which include daily cleaning, changing diapers or cooking food. Society seems to believe that “staying” with a child does not help a woman develop in any way, that there is nothing to talk about with her, except for maybe child nutrition. But how wrong those who say so are! Educating a young human being is the most productive and creative time of all: it is an encounter with a new personality who begins to absorb everything the world has to offer, it is the time of daily discoveries. And the role of the housewife and beloved mother is a unique time in a person’s life that may never come again, because children grow up very quickly.
Yes, the Lord did leave a commandment to Adam and all men that “by the sweat of your face you shall eat bread”(Genesis 3:19), but we don’t hear the same about women, instead we hear a commandment about childbirth, about children…
Workaholism, like laziness, are two opposing extremes that come from one place – sin. In part this is the legacy of the Soviet past, when being overly passionate at work was welcomed. But I ask you today, dear mothers and fathers, do not become infected!
Just Imagine what will happen when you stop your work, disappear from the face of the earth, someone else will come to replace you – the earth will still be spinning … But what will remain after you? A pile of insensitive metal, a stack of colored waste paper or just a total void?
On the other hand you could have children with happy memories who recall a wonderful childhood,adolescence, youth…
PS: The little girl that was quoted in the beginning of this article already turned eighteen. Seriously lacking parental love as a child, she continues on in life, but is forced to do so with great difficulty … She wishes that when she has her own family and children, she will certainly become a caring mother who will not only see and know how her children are growing up , but also be an integral part of their world and make sure it is full of love.
June 26, 2018
By Olga Aleksandrova
