Our worlds are rife with complications and stress. Sometimes we have great ideas but lack the great partnerships we need to forge ahead. And, in the middle of an uncertain world demanding certain outcomes, when we have an employee that needs to be away on extended family leave, it can feel like a liability especially if your company is small or in a precarious financial predicament.
Now, meet me, a mother of three small children who constantly need my attention. If you come to my home, you will find sticky cereal on the ground, screaming kids dashing from room to room, and potentially me with crazy mother hair and bloodshot eyes.
I am also a writer. I have written three fiction books even though I am unpublished and have yet to rear my head above water to pursue publishing.
I am also a coach and a project manager by day. I relish every second of my job where I get to interact with people from different backgrounds, solve problems that feel unsolvable, and resolve conflicts when there is no agreement in sight.
And, I love my life. If I could find a fourth passion, I would. I do not think being a mother of three, having a full-time job, and a burning passion that keeps typing at my keyboard at night is a liability at all – it is fortune.
But, I did not always feel this way.
When I was inexperienced in balancing work-life – life with children, when I was expecting my first child, I wondered how my life would unfold, if I could handle being a good mother and be good at my job at the same. There were occasions I stepped away from opportunities doubting I could give it my all. And, when I think about myself back then, I laugh. I was naïve. And, if you as an employer feel like my naïve self, unsure how big of a liability mothers are, think twice.
I am wiser today because I know what I bring to the table which I did not before having my kids. Here are some reasons companies could use mothers (or fathers for that matter) of how much ever experience.
- Mothers are great conflict resolvers
Children are notorious for fighting over petty things. And, a parent witnesses this on a routine basis. It is not a wasted skill because at work conflicts are prevalent as well even though adults fight in a different manner. The conflict resolution skill is honed and polished daily by parents.
- Mothers are patient
Ever sat at a dining table and watched someone eat at a snail’s pace half-hour after you are done? That counts for three meals a day for parents.
Ever coached a person, and you have learnt over time, that coaching isn’t always one time advice, it is repeated instruction that is cultivated over a painstakingly long time?
Selflessness associated with taking care of another human being who is entirely dependent on you emotionally and physically is a unique lesson and the patience virtue it endows is invaluable.
- Mothers are great multi-tasker
Multi-tasking is routine for a parent. Juggling and succeeding is an art learned, in my humble opinion, in world’s most difficult job – being a parent and raising a child.
- Mothers heal and are great counselors
From ice packs, to Band-Aids at their fingertips to snuggling in bed, listening to a child confide about their problems at the playground during recess, healing and counseling does not end in the confines of parenthood, it transcends to work.
- Mothers are creative problem solvers/managers
Ever had an associate that needs to be occupied every second of every minute of the day? Meet a parent who turns a dining table into a fancy craft station, paper into flying jets, pasta loops into necklaces – mothers know how to think outside of the box.
- Mothers do not take things personally
After a million conflict resolutions amongst people who love each other tremendously, after witnessing a million errors, after a million pitfalls and aftermaths, things a novice would spend a sleepless night over, a parent shrugs off and laughs it off as trivial. In the grand scheme of things, where nothing tops love and selflessness, it takes trivial out of focus.
- Mothers love their work in a new way
It is a perspective – leaving the people you love the most at a daycare, in someone else’s care with tears streaming down their faces, and driving yourself to work – be it for four hours or ten, that work better be damn good, and damn enjoyable else what is the point? Yes, I need the paycheck but if you have checked the costs of early daycare and college, you will understand a paycheck can only be so high, but if the work does not live up to the heart of a parent, they will not be coming there every day. It is a perspective that taught me how to burn 400 calories in twenty-five minutes at the gym – because those twenty-five minutes was all I could afford, and I had to make those twenty-five minutes the best I could. I apply the same philosophy to work.
Lastly, I will say, I know I wrote this article about mothers because they bear the nine-month gift of pregnancy and the immediate aftermath of labor and delivery but the qualities above apply to all the hardworking, hands-on fathers all the same.
Next time, you think of mothers or future mothers as liability – Think twice.