Motherhood; A Good Long Look

With the kind of hours we have to put in caring, feeding, cooking for, cleaning after, bathing, scolding, worrying about our children, you'd imagine it to be an extremely lucrative career, wouldn't you? One that would not only give you monetary rewards but also emotional satisfaction. A career that will send you off to many exotic countries for free and you'll get to meet many different people from all walks of life because of your career, right?

Erm.....

What is it about motherhood that is so absolutely enthralling? So enchanting, so miraculous that it is almost like a very cruel joke. You love it, you love being mom but heck, you wish the kids will just stop SCREAMING!!!

Look, we said motherhood is amazingly rewarding, but we didn't say in what way. And yes, we did say that motherhood gives you a warm glow on your face (from all that running around, of course) and a joyfully painful ache in your heart (He said he hated me!), what's not to like about being a mother? Well...it depends on how you want to look at it, really.

If you enjoy standing for hours cooking just to have your kids fling it around the dining table lasso-fashion in their own creative way of expressing their appreciation, yes, motherhood is really quite worthwhile. If your hands feel coarser than sandpaper and you LIKE IT THAT WAY, by golly, you're made to be a mother. And if you enjoy tripping over toys on the stairs because you think it's really challenging and exciting, be my guest.

But what is all this hoopla about being a mother? Isn't it like...the most natural thing in the world to be?

Look, motherhood is exclusive. It's exclusive to our own gender because males can NEVER be mom....even if they had a womb implanted, in my personal opinion, motherhood goes beyond having a womb and a vagina...but correct me if I am wrong. Motherhood is a life-changing, life-long, emotional career that can take you places. And a man cannot just fit into it because they just don't have that emotional capacity.

I don't want to explain this because I might end up in a man-bashing session but motherhood is something that I never thought I'd enjoy. Sure, it doesn't pay (at all) and it's sometimes (ALWAYS is more like it) draining and exhausting.

But if you tell me that your heart will swell whenever your boss closes his/her eyes in front of you and you watch your boss breathe in and out and thank the Lord above that you are blessed with an opportunity to work with him/her, then you're weird. Unless, of course, your boss is your child.

Which brings me back to my original intention of writing this article.

If given a chance to choose again, I would STILL continue to be a mom to my boys. No amount of mullah will get me to change my mind. Not even the world. The reason? It's simple.

My boss asks me to write a report for him, I frown, thinks he's such a buffoon but do it anyway because I want my salary at the end of the month.

As compared to...

My kids soil their pants and I have to spend an hour scrubbing human feces off carpets and I am smiling as he stands there, right there in the doorway asking me, "Mom, can I have a lollipop now?" I smile because he looks so sweet and pouty and say "Sure, go ahead but only one, ok?". He grins and runs off with a quick, "Thanks, MOM!". I smile because I give...not get.

In motherhood, that is, sometimes, all there is to it.