THOUGHT
"Moms don't work," my three-year-old daughter said to me when I mentioned that our neighbor was off to her job. Rolling her eyes like a fourteen-year-old, the look on her face said, Mom, you should know better. "What?!? They most certainly do!" was my shocked, but not-so-helpful response.
What I really wanted to say was, "Moms all over the world wear their children on their backs while they work in the fields. There are moms in factories, offices and farms that feed their families from their work. And while we're on the subject, it doesn't matter if a mom gets a paycheck, she's a working mom! How do you think you are fed? Have clean clothes? Get to preschool? Your mother is working!"
But I realized that my ranting would not be helpful. What my three-year-old really meant was, "You don't leave the house everyday like Daddy does to that unknown place called work." I did a mental inventory. It was true most of the moms she knew were home during the day with their kids. As a stay-at-home mom, our days were spent with other moms who had their days free. My daughter's normal was moms don't go to "work."
I named some moms she knew that did leave their homes to go to work, and I promised myself I would do a better job of highlighting other families' choices, showing her that everyone is not just like us—I would do a better job of broadening her sense of normal.
PRAYER
Dear God, help my child see and understand that the world is a big and diverse place, and that You have a different and unique plan for each of us.
Written by Alexandra Kuykendall
