Why Mother’s Day Is a Very Important Day for Working Women

How was your Mother’s Day? Some working women minimize the importance of Mother’s Day. If you already are a mother or if motherhood is part of your future plans, here’s why Mother’s Day is an important day for working women.

I hope you spent your Mother’s Day with your family and children. If they’re older and live far away, I hope you got a card or a phone call. After all, both you and your children have reason to celebrate on Mother’s Day. You wouldn’t be celebrating the day if not for them. They wouldn’t be here without you!

So why is Mother’s Day so important to working women?  It’s because your kids are so important to your success.  

When I was in the oil business I traveled two nights each week. I remember the guilt I felt leaving my young daughter home despite the great care she had. My guilt had me buying her small gifts to bring to her when I returned.  

When she was seven I returned home from a business trip.  I walked in the door and my daughter was relaxing in the den watching television from the recliner. She turned to me and said, "So what did you bring me?" I was shocked. Then I was angry.

I put my bags down and said, "I work pretty hard to make life good for you. When I come home I expect you to say thank you for all that I do. I am not going to hear ‘What did you bring me?’ I want you to tell me that you miss me and am glad to see me home. Now I’m going to go out the door and come in again. We’re going to pretend that what you said didn’t happen."

That’s what I did.

I picked up my suitcase and attach? and walked out the front door. I came back in again after a minute. My daughter got out of the chair, walked over to me and hugged me. She told me she missed me and was glad to see me home again. I stopped buying gifts.  

When I finally left Corporate America a few years later, it was this wonderful daughter who encouraged me. She told me on the first day of a sales training program that I delivered that I would be wonderful. She told me how smart I was and how good I am at my job.  Those words meant the world to me.

When you work and are also a mother, you have to remember that your most important job is being a mother.

Even the iconic First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis agreed.  In addition to leading the restoration of the White House she worked as an editor at Doubleday when her children were older. She once said,"If you bungle raising your children, I don't think whatever else you do matters very much."

She’s right.

Mother’s Day is important to working women because if you have children, it’s on Mother’s Day that you get to see how you’re doing on this most important job.

Maura Schreier-Fleming is a sales strategist and founder of Best@Selling, a sales training and consulting company. She wrote Monday Morning Sales Tips and works with sales professionals who want to sell more and get more business.