What Moms are Really Worth

Recently I saw on social media about what mothers who choose different paths are worth. I’m sure you’ve seen them. What a stay-at-home mom or working mom is worth? One post about the stay-at-home moms accredited it to a well-intentioned husband, which didn’t seem too far-fetched. After a little research, I discovered it was actually a study done by an economic website for Mother’s Day. Maybe sweet but I’m here to tell you they’re wrong.

   No, I’m not saying this because mothers aren’t “actual” CEOs. Nor is it because some of us lack the education required for some of the jobs it attaches to motherhood. For working moms pretty much seemed to say we were worth whatever our salary is + all the things attributed to stay-at-home moms but guess what it’s wrong too.

   These studies might seem innocent enough on the surface, but they are utter bullshit. Why? Because you can’t put a monetary worth on motherhood and we shouldn’t need one. Why do we feel like we need an amount to justify our decision to be a mother? You can’t tell me how much one mom is worth compared to another. If my kid puts his pants on backwards am I worth less? Because that happened last week. What if my house is cleaner, does that earn me a bonus? For that matter why would being a mother make me monetarily worth more than a woman without children? Being a mom is actually one of the most common things in the world, does the value change by country? Why does it need a value? P.S. Don’t even get me started on the fact that these don’t exist AT ALL for dads.

   Think about this, can you tell me how much money seeing your baby’s first smile is worth? What about the first time your toddler told you they loved you?

Motherhood is hard work but it is not something we do for a paycheck. We are worth more than any study could ever calculate because our worth is not found in money — it is found in ourselves. We are the owie kissers, the shoulders to cry on, and the warm safe place at the end of the day.  The bottom line is that no matter what path you’ve chosen for you or that you find yourself in, your worth as a mother and as a woman is not and should not ever be measured in dollar signs.