Mother’s Day and Last Day of Canada’s National Nurses Week

A Mother's Day gift and
a gift from a young patient

At first glance,

I thought this juxtaposition

was quite incongruous.

But mothers for many decades

have been employed outside the home in nursing positions.

And in relatively recent history

so have fathers.

Juggling schedules of 

home and family

shift work

employer’s schedules       

continuing education

has been and is worthy of the Flying Wallenda’s.

In the late 1950’s, when

women choosing nursing as a career

were granted the opportunity

to become 

married

mothers

working nurses were born.

I say this rather cynically,

yet with the knowledge that

societal mores change slowly.

My musings this morning are two fold

Initially they have been about the many mothers 

that I have known, 

both outside and inside of nursing,

But then I thought of my sons

knowing that they had to share

my heart and mind with

my career

my marriage

our family's many roller coaster events

This mother is supremely grateful

for the love they have given me in this

side by side mother/nurse role I have chosen.

“It is not how much you do but how 

much love you put in the doing.”

~ Mother Theresa

“First, from the early 1950s, many employed mothers began to challenge, although not overturn, the dominant discourse of the ideal mother as exclusively bound to home. The simple fact is that so many women were drawn to work outside the home despite criticism demonstrates the monetary and psychological importance of employment for women.”  

                                              (Wilson, 2006)