I remember when my first child was born. I had been a feminist. I thought staying home and caring for one's own children would be demeaning and that there were plenty of quality child care situations out there. Why should mom stay home? If she's an intelligent, capable woman she should be out there using her talents.....and so on.
I took one look at Michael's face and realized it was completely out of the question. There was no way I would leave him in the hands of someone else. Not only that, I realized that the task that lay before me, raising this beautiful human being, loving him, teaching him, mothering him, was the greatest and most monumental responsibility on Earth. I had advanced degrees. I had graduated with high honors from college. I had been an exchange student in France in high school and had studied Japanese in Japan for a year. I was teaching Japanese to Americans and giving talks to business people who would travel to Japan.
I looked at my son and realized that everything else I had ever done in my life was, in comparison, trivial. I was a mother! And my most important work, the greatest work that I could ever do lay before me-- the job of being his mom.
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