Best Job In The World

I love my job because it is the most rewarding job in the world: being a parent. I also work as a nonprofit accountant, working for organizations whose mission it is to help others, but as rewarding as that job is, it is in no way a comparison to being a mother and Mimi. Motherhood was not in my original plans growing up. I had been told at sixteen that it was highly unlikely that I would even be able to have or carry children of my own. But at 21 I was shocked to find that I was pregnant with my first son.

I was terrified. You have to take classes, pass a written and driven test in Ohio just to get your license, but to have a baby, nothing! They hand you this adorable, fragile little human being and you are expected to figure it out. They give you less instructions than a piece of IKEA furniture. But I did figure it out, and I learned that I was good at it. I was good at being a mother. 18 short months later I had my second son.

While I was good at being a mother, I was not good at keeping my family together and we split up before my second son was born. But I met my current husband when my son was only a few weeks old. He had four children. I knew I had to be crazy to start a relationship with a man with four kids but I did and I soon became the stepmother to those four amazing kids.

Being a mom came easy to me, being a stepmom was no different. I looked at all 6 of our children the same and I loved them as my own. I was fortunate enough that my husband loved my sons as his own and together we raised the children as one big, happy blended family. My ex remarried and his new wife is amazing. I adore her and I appreciate her more than she will ever know.

My husband and I had a daughter 9 years ago and a few months later my ex and his wife had a daughter. Our daughters are best friends. My husband is friends with my ex and I am friends with my ex's wife. We go on vacations together, celebrate birthdays and holidays together, and work together to co-parent our kids. I am proud of the example that we are setting for all 7 of our children. I am proud of the relationship that we have formed.

My husband's eldest daughter had a son two years ago, making us grandparents. I'm WAY too young to be a grandma, but I'm content with being a Mimi and my grandson is the light of my life. He is the sweetest, funniest little boy.

There are many reasons why I feel as though motherhood is the most important job, but the main reason is the future: our children are the future. As a mother I am raising and have raised the citizens of the future. I feel as though it is my duty to ensure that I am raising them to be kind, respectful, confident, smart, conscientious, and hard-working. I have raised them to feminists, even the three boys. I've raised them to love and accept people of all races, ethnicities, religions, sexual orientations, and beliefs.

We always hear that "racism begins at home" or "that behavior begins at home". Well, I want to make sure that what begins in my home is respect and love. I want my children to be the ones that stand up for their classmates when they see they are being bullied. I want my children to be the ones that help ensure a girl gets home safely if she's had too much to drink in college, not the guy that takes advantage of her while she's drunk.

I feel as though there is no job that is more important, more difficult, or more vital than being a parent. I went to school to become an accountant. I can open a textbook to find the answer if I can't recall how to do something at work. I get paid to come in everyday and if I decide that I don't like what I am doing, I can quit. There is no textbook that has all of the answers in parenthood. I get paid in eyerolls and hugs. And no matter how difficult motherhood might get, I would never quit on them. Ever.

Being a mom is wonderful and hard and gut-wrenching and exhausting and the absolute best job there is. My job might not change the world, but then again it could. I could raise the person that cures cancer. I could raise the person that stops climate change. I could raise the next Ghandi. Even if my children don't make a tremendous impact on the world, they are still MY world, and they've made an impact on me.