Motherhood is Work!

This past week there has been the ugly debate of WOMEN choosing to work outside the home versus inside the home.  Is one better than the other?  

"The choices all women make must be respected. My career choice was to be a mother and I think all of us need to know we need to respect choices that women make. Other women make choices to have a career and raise a family. I respect that, that’s wonderful. But there are other people that have a choice, and we have to respect women and all those choices that they make."

-Ann Romney

 I will tell you this- I'm proud to be a SAHM & Motherhood is Work, Hard Work! If a woman chooses to make her career her family, it does not make her or her career any less important or less significant than any other CEO of a company! In fact, it's been said that "The most important work you and I will ever do will be within the walls of our own homes" (Harold B. Lee). 

 The question of whether or not to work (outside the home) is the wrong question. The question is, "Am I aligned with the Lord's vision of me and what He needs me to become, and the roles and responsibilities he gave me in heaven that are not negotiable? Am I aligned with that, or am I trying to escape my duties?" Those are the kinds of things we need to understand. Our Heavenly Father loves His daughters, and because He loves us and the reward at the end is so glorious, we do not get a pass from the responsibilities we were given. We cannot give them way. They are our sacred duties and we fulfill them under covenant" (Julie B. Beck)

"There is no one perfect way to be a good mother. Each situation is unique. Each mother has different challenges, different skills and abilities, and certainly different children. The choice is different and unique for each mother and each family. Many are able to be “full-time moms,” at least during the most formative years of their children’s lives, and many others would like to be. Some may have to work part-or full-time; some may work at home; some may divide their lives into periods of home and family and work. What matters is that a mother loves her children deeply and, in keeping with the devotion she has for God and her husband, prioritizes them above all else" (Elder M. Russell Ballard)

With that said, we (as women, as a society, as a nation) need to stop judging others for their personal decisions.  We are all different!  President Thomas S. Monson said it best when he said,

"My dear sisters, each of you is unique. You are different from each other in many ways. There are those of you who are married. Some of you stay at home with your children, while others of you work outside your homes. . . .Such differences are almost endless. Do these differences tempt us to judge one another?
Mother Teresa, a Catholic nun who worked among the poor in India most of her life, spoke this profound truth: “If you judge people, you have no time to love them.” The Savior has admonished, “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.” I ask: can we love one another, as the Savior has commanded, if we judge each other? And I answer—with Mother Teresa: no, we cannot."

So to all those who judge mothers for not working outside the home or vice versa. . .

"— please apply the following: Stop it!" -Pres Dieter F. Uchtdorf