Just a Mom!

Just a Mom!

While applying for her driver’s license, Deepa was asked by the clerical  staff to state her occupation. Deepa hesitated, uncertain how to clarify herself. “What I mean is” explained the clerk. “ Do you have a job, or are you just a …”

“Of course I have a job.”snapped Deepa.”I’m a mother.”

“We don’t list ‘mother’ as an occupation… ‘housewife’ covers it.”  Said the clerk emphatically.

The next time Deepa found herself dealing with a public office, she again encountered a clerk who asked,  “What is your occupation?”

“I am a Research Associate in the field of Child Development and Human Relations,” Deepa ventured confidently. The clerk paused, his pen froze in midair, and he looked up as though he had not heard right.  Deepa repeated the title slowly, emphasizing the most significant words.

“Might I ask,” said the clerk with sudden interest, “just what do you do in your field?”

Coolly, without any trace of nervousness in her voice,Deepa replied, “I have a continuing program of research (which mother doesn’t?) in the laboratory and in the field (indoors and outdoors). I’m working for my Master’s (the whole family) and already have three credits,( a son and two daughters). Of course, the job is one of the most demanding in the humanities (any mother care to disagree?) and I often work 14 hours a day (24 is more like it). But the job is more satisfactory than just money.”

There was an increasing note of respect in the clerk’s voice as she completed the form. He stood up and personally ushered Deepa to the door.

As Deepa drove back, buoyed by her glamorous  new career she was greeted by her lab assistants – aged 8 and 5.Upstairs,Deepa could hear her new experimental model (the 2 – year old) in the child development program testing out new vocal patterns.  Deepa felt triumphant. She had gone on official records as someone more distinguished and indispensable to mankind than ‘just another mother’.

Does this make grandmothers ‘Senior Research Associates in the field of Child Devlopment and Human Relations? Then the aunts – ‘Associate Research Associates’.

Motherhood… what a glorious career!

It is not what you do but how you see what you do that makes all the difference.