Question: What does it mean when people say motherhood is a vocation? —asked at “Ask a friend, ask Efren” free service available at www.personalfinance.ph and Facebook.
Answer: Have you not read it? It is written in the Holy Book, “Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb?…” – Isaiah 49:15
Mothers play a crucial role in the upbringing of children. In fact, women are endowed with 14 to 16 areas of the brain for behavior evaluation, which come in handy when taking care of children who still cannot fully express themselves. In contrast, men have only 4 to 6 areas of their brain for behavior evaluation.
More than taking care of their young, mothers impart to their children valuable lessons in life, including those covering money management. While being a mother does not automatically make one a perfect life coach, the drive to protect and raise their young empowers the overwhelming majority of mothers to at least strive to be one.
Fathers, the traditional breadwinner, need to spend most of the day working outside of the home to put food on the table, leaving mothers to take on the task of child-rearing. Mothers learn the science and art of budgeting early as they need to make do with whatever their husbands entrust to them for their families’ daily needs. This is aptly captured in the Filipino saying, “ang mga ina ang ilaw ng tahanan” (mothers are the light of the home) and to which I jokingly add, “sapagkat ang mga ama ang taga bayad ng kuryente” (because fathers take charge of paying the electric bills).
With the strength of Amazonian women, mothers balance budgeting with nurturing and teaching their young. They do not multi-task as no human can but they switch from one task to another (e.g. caregiver, cook, tutor, playmate, story-teller etc.) in rapid succession.
I have even heard stories of mothers being widowed at a young age and being compelled to take the leap from being a homemaker to a homemaker cum breadwinner. The dual role is a Herculean task but mothers manage. In one story, a mother never taught her children, especially her banker daughter about handling the latter’s financial affairs. This mother was widowed at the age of 38 and left alone to raise six children. She led a simple life but saved a lot despite being a salaried government employee. Later on, she increased her income with a small business. The only loan she contracted was a GSIS loan to build the house that she would later leave to her children after she passed away.
My own mother was also widowed at age 39 and left to take care of me and my two siblings plus one that she adopted. She was never employed. But she fended for us by selling jewelry and making curtains. She also tried becoming a life insurance agent and caregiver in the US. She hardly borrowed money. On the contrary, she resorted to small-time lending. Yet, somehow, she was able to accumulate a substantial amount of assets.
Indeed, the mommy is a Wonder Woman.