Being Mom

To be Queen Elizabeth within a definite area, deciding sales, banquets, labors and holidays; to be Whiteley within a certain area, providing toys, boots, sheets cakes. and books, to be Aristotle within a certain area, teaching morals, manners, theology, and hygiene; I can understand how this might exhaust the mind, but I cannot imagine how it could narrow it. How can it be a large career to tell other people's children about the Rule of Three, and a small career to tell one's own children about the universe? How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone, and narrow to be everything to someone? No; a woman's function is laborious, but because it is gigantic, not because it is minute. I will pity Mrs. Jones for the hugeness of her task; I will never pity her for its smallness. - G.K. Chesterton What's Wrong with the World

So why doesn't it feel that way? For all of human history, the most noble task was that of being a mother. Yet, in recent Western history, we find it difficult to lower ourselves to such "menial" responsibility. It is not to say that all women are meant to be mothers, let alone to stay home with their children. But why is it so easy to think of one's self as wasted at home? It's an interesting thought. What a career..."to tell one's children about the universe." Pretty daunting. Chesterton also points out that it is not only a widening and benefit to the mind of the child, but to that of the mother as well. Quite the opposite of wasting away.