Tomorrow is the Global Day of Parents, a group of people who have probably the most important responsibilities imaginable, and who are least appreciated of all. Generally speaking, parents are loaded with blame if anything goes wrong, whether or not they had any influence over the situation, while little is heard when things go right.
Being a parent is probably about the hardest job in the world. When you look at the sleepless nights, the worry over children getting sick or getting into trouble, the worry over how to make sure children are fed properly, all the time, and effort put into helping children learn how the world works and what their place in the world is, teaching children how to take care of themselves and become independent men and women. The constant vigilance and worry that is there day and night for years and years.
Of course, being a parent is not just about worrying, teaching and providing. It is also about loving, enjoying, feeling pride and in getting to watch the small helpless babies that you put into the world develop into capable adults. In most cases the job of being a parent comes with many rewards, within the family.
However, in another way it is the most thankless job in the world. By the outside world it is not usually recognised as a job at all. There is certainly no pay involved, no matter how many hours you spend day after day after day. Whether it is caring for your children around the clock, or whether it is taking care of all the caring duties in the hours left in the day and night after you have put in a full day’s work to be able to provide for the family. Sometimes not being quite sure which part is the one where you get to rest: the one where you are home with the children, cooking, washing and preventing disasters, or the one at your demanding job?
Parents deserve more recognition from society for the amazing job they do, raising their children. A job that leads not just to generation after generation of new adults ready to take on the world, but that also is of financial benefit to society. Children raised by their parents tend to do better in life and tend to need fewer – costly -interventions from society, either during their childhood or during adulthood.
So, let’s give a cheer to all the parents, who although they feel beaten down and more exhausted than they thought possible at times, keep on going and doing what they can to care for their children. The parents who despite all the pressures from the outside are determined not to hand their children over to an institution, knowing deep inside that their child is better of with them. Let’s recognise that these are the heroes and that this is their day.
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