The hardest job in the world?

[Phteven]

*Warning - Haphazard ramblings*
Ever since I got pregnant I've been told that being a mother is the hardest job in the world. It seems to have almost become an accepted truth of our culture. Personally I believed a lot of what people told me about being a mother because they had more experience than me but now that I've been a mother for long enough to get used to it I find myself wondering just how true that statement is.
I remember how hard it was waking up every 2 hours for a baby that still woke up every 2 hours long after his peers had settled down to sleeping 4 hours or longer but even though it felt like it went forever at the time, in retrospect it was such a short time and I kind of wish that I had savoured it just a little more.
I think that maybe this is the problem with living in a culture that has decided that being a mother is the hardest job in the world - that maybe because we are setting mothers up to believe that their job is going to be really hard so it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Yes, there are some parts that are tough but for those of us who are healthy (physically and mentally) it's not such a tough gig to have the privilege of raising healthy children in one of the luckiest countries on earth.

If we're told we are doing it tough does that lead to a false sense of entitlement? That we deserve a park beside the door like people who have mobility issues although we are young, fit and strong. That we have the right to board a plane first. That a baby on board sign justifies bad driving. Not to mention our entitlement to middle class welfare

We all have times when we would like to pretend that we are just baby-sitting or think about running away and joining the circus but that doesn't mean that we have the hardest job in the world - imagine working a in a 3rd world sweat shop or being a Dr in an Iraqi hospital.

I saw Fiona O'Loughlin on some TV show a couple of months ago discussing how hard motherhood is and the point that she made is that when the parents of healthy children claim that being parents is the hardest job on earth they are insulting all the parents sitting in hospitals praying that their children will survive or preparing to say good-bye. I would take it further and say that we insult all the parents trying to raise their children in circumstances that we can't even imagine. I think maybe we insult the parents who are still struggling to become parents and the parents who had to come home without their babies - they would probably love to have out tough gig.
I get that having special needs children and/or your own health issues makes it a whole heap harder but most of us don't.
It's good to have a whinge occasionally and acknowledge that parenting can have some ghastly moments but they aren't all ghastly moments.
How do our children feel - that being with them is a really tough job? If my husband complained that being with me was a difficult job I imagine that I would feel pretty upset.


I think I have repeated myself a bit and rambled a lot but the upshot of it all is that I'm calling bullshorts on the myth that raising children is the toughest job we can have. Raising our children is a privilege not a chore. Of course it's not always sunshine and lollipops but since we live in the real world not happy-happy-rainbowstan we should expect that.