Working Mothers

* Hats off to the single working mother.

For nine years I’ve been leading a storytelling club for kids age 8 to 12 at the Boys & Girls Club of Ventura. As I have become acquainted with the boys and girls who regularly attend these sessions, they often have shared very personal information and concerns about their lives and family situations. I realized that more than half of these kids came from broken homes. In many cases, they lived in homes headed by a single working mother.

Some of the kids complained that their moms weren’t home enough to spend time with them. Others were more concerned about their moms, saying they were working too long and hard.

We discussed how mothers often have to work full-time and sometimes even hold down a couple of jobs to pay household expenses. Coupled with household duties, this leaves little “quality time” with their kids. Those young minds seem to comprehend and understand the situation very well.

I would often meet some of the moms when they stopped in to pick up their kids. They would ask questions about the kids’ participation in the storytelling programs and express concern for their development.

They often expressed regret that they couldn’t take time to share stories with their kids themselves and participate in other nurturing activities.

“As much as I’d like that, there just aren’t enough hours in the day to permit it,” one mother said.

On one occasion when I had just completed a program at the Reagan library in Simi Valley, a mother and her three kids came to the front of the theater.

“I just wanted my kids to experience a program of oral storytelling, just like people enjoyed hundreds and thousands of years ago,” she said. “I’m working so much of the time I seldom have the opportunity to take the kids out, and they don’t have a dad in the area. But we cherish the few times we can get out together.”

The majority of working moms I’ve observed are highly dedicated to their kids. They do their best in their difficult situation. They do an admirable job--and their kids and the world will benefit from it in future years.

JIM WOODARD

Ventura