Working Mothers and Letting Go of the Guilt

Working Mothers and Letting Go of the Guilt Every year before Mothers Day, a few annual surveys come out about working mothers. Salary.com has the Whats Mom Worth? salary wizard which calculates how much someone would be paid for all of the jobs moms do (teacher, cook, chauffeur, etc) and reminds moms that all the work they do is worth a six-figure salary even though they never actually see a dime. And CareerBuilders Working Mothers Survey reports that close to a quarter of working moms take work home and reminds moms that they are not alone in feeling guilty about not spending more time with their kids. So I never head into Mothers Day weekend with a warm and fuzzy feeling; instead I grumble as I wash dishes that should be at least a $10 an hour job and wallow in  my feelings of being underpaid and overworked.The surveys seem to suggest that working moms dont spend nearly the amount of quality time with their kids as their moms did. But is this really the case? My friends and I often joke around about our moms and how they o pened the door and said Go out and play and dont come back until lunch. And when we returned for lunch we had about 15 minutes before mom opened that door again and said Dont come back until dinner.  Yet we all managed to make it to adulthood without being emotionally scarred and we have fond memories of our childhood and our moms.Ive decided that working mother guilt is so 2005 and Im moving past it. And as for the working for nothing side of the equation, Ive come to the conclusion that sometimes the times you spend doing those seemingly thankless chores, making the extra batch of brownies for the school bake sale, or playing that third mind-numbing Game of Life are memories you end up cherishing for life that cant be replaced by any monetary compensation.While I was writing this post my daughter came into my office to chat. I told her I was working. She gave me her classic teenage eye roll. But ten minutes later I put the post on hold to chat. It was just ten minutes to reconnect and hear about her day. Maybe she would have liked 20 minutes. But she got 10 and 20 minutes wouldnt have necessarily made it a better conversation nor would it have made me a better mother. Working moms give a lot. And kids know that and they like their moms just the way they are.    Happy Mothers Day!