As I sit here and write, trying to find my voice, today is a momentous day in the Women's movement. Today we celebrate 100 years of recognition for what we do.
Yet, I wonder how different things really are in the past 100 years.
Today women are still persecuted and treated as second class, we are expected by society to earn a living as well as raise children. We are the ones to blame when the child rearing goes wrong. We consider ourselves failures when we choose to look after our children and not work, sticking to the edge of society as "Stay at home Mums", overlooked and dismissed by ourselves and our peers. Rape, abuse, and self loathing are at a new all time high amongst women, and self image at an all time low.
I myself struggle often with the choices I have made of staying at home to raise my children, and take responsibility for their well being and education. I wonder if I made the right choice - if I should have stayed in my well paid job, brought in an extra income, should have sent the kids to school.
Even my parents, educated and free thinking, ask me regularly when I am going to get a job.
And then I look at my children - really look - and know that I am doing the the right thing and that society can go screw itself. I see and hear and feel the joy and the laughter that bubbles out of them. Their thirst for knowledge is immense, and their sense of humor vast. The smallest thing can set my daughter giggling causing a chain reaction that ripples through the rest of the family.
It is her on this day that I want to concentrate on, it is her that I want to keep her sense of self and fierce (although at times frustrating) sense of independence. No one can make my daughter do anything she doesn't want to do. Added to this wondrous spirit is also a sensitivity so deep and profound and an empathy that is way beyond her years. I am proud to call myself her mother.
How long will they be at this carefree stage? As long as I can keep it there for them. They are my children and as such deserve the very best - and that very best is me.
They say that change begins at home - I believe that to be true. I too can cry at the atrocities that the world brings, and weep for the innocent - but what of my innocents? If I cannot protect my own, then who will?
So I salute you, every mum that has made the choice to stay at home and take responsibility for their kids - may you live long and prosper and help to grow a generation of people who have confidence in themselves and knowledge of who they are and their heritage!
And to those who work, I salute you too, the choice is often not there for you - know you are strong and can make a difference in your child's life by acknowledging them and loving them as much as possible.
A cliche but, Children really are our future, so let's make sure that those young men and women will lead us into a world of true equality, not the pseudo one in which we currently live.
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