According to Wikipedia, International Women’s Day is a global holiday celebrated annually on March 8 to commemorate the cultural, political, and socioeconomic achievements of women. I always enjoy celebrating the accomplishments of women from all walks of life and every nation and culture, and if I am being completely honest, I believe the accomplishments of women should be celebrated more than once a year.
I want to take a moment now to highlight a specific cultural achievement of women in 2020-21: the raising, fostering, and education of children by mothers during a pandemic.
I have had the honor and blessing to serve as a mentor to a “younger moms” bible study group for the past 2 years. Prior to the pandemic, we met in person to socialize and study scripture together. Of course, that all changed once Covid reared its ugly head. Like the rest of the modern world, we began meeting via Zoom, and that is where we reside today. It has been an interesting journey to follow along with these moms of young children as we navigated this unprecedented (for our generation) time.
Never before has so much responsibility been placed squarely on the shoulders of moms, as during this pandemic. They continued their prior roles as chief caretaker, nutritionist, housekeeper, and nurse (to name a few), but added on the role of full-time teacher to students who were being asked to transition to schoolwork fully presented online. Parents who never before considered themselves as appropriate candidates for homeschool, found themselves involuntarily placed into entirely new roles.
I have watched as they have experienced the exhaustion and frustration that any such sacrifice brings. I believe many of them do not give themselves the credit they deserve for handling the upheaval so well, but I have to say, they have exceeded all of my expectations. I personally do not know if I would have been able to handle all of the duties as well as they have. I enjoyed the quarantine with my adult daughters and saw it as “bonus” time that I never expected to receive. But let’s be real…24/7 with young children takes a certain level of patience and energy that can only be described as supernatural. Mamas of littles….when I think about celebrating strong women in our culture, I think about you. You may not receive a salary, or an accolade for your efforts, but your reward will come one day. You will receive the honor of watching your little children grow into independent adults, and you will know that, with God’s help, you had a major role in that. You’re growing the next generation of strong women, and strong men, who in my opinion, have an equally important role in life as partners and supporters of strong women.
So as we celebrate the accomplishments of women, let us not forget to honor the unsung heroes who raise the next generation.