When I was twenty years old, If someone had told me that one day I would need to be the primary daily "bread winner" for my family, I would have laughed at them in the face. That just wasn't something I was set up for. It wasn't what I was brought up to be. But the fact that at the end of this week I will get my first pay check when no other new income is going to come in, is a pretty incredible thing to happen to me.
You see in my family its not just that the women are not expected to work, in many cases they are simply not permitted to work. So growing up I had no role models of working women, working mothers or households where women took on the role of the primary earner. So as I go down this journey I am going to have to write my own rules, create my own guide posts, and set my own measures for success and failure.
But I would be lying if I said that this does not scare me. While I have taken on this new role, many of the conventional roles have held on. For various reasons I am still going to be the primary care giver and home maker . One of the reasons being that those are the only roles I know to do with absolute certainty. Almost all my female role models growing up were stay at home mothers or at the most teachers, who in my mind were just extensions of a mother. So on most days the part of me I am most sure of, nimble footed at, are being the mother and the person who runs the household.
However my journey has to have a meaning. Maybe this is a journey to create a new role model for all the girls who like me have been brought up on the notion that their primary role was to bring up the children, take care of the house and support the man as he went out to earn. When they see me I hope they can realize that life is unpredictable. The best thing you can do for yourself is to get an education, learn a skill and get the qualifications that will set you up to earn a living. Role model or no role model, you may have to step up to the task and simply put, its just easier when you are prepared.
You see in my family its not just that the women are not expected to work, in many cases they are simply not permitted to work. So growing up I had no role models of working women, working mothers or households where women took on the role of the primary earner. So as I go down this journey I am going to have to write my own rules, create my own guide posts, and set my own measures for success and failure.
But I would be lying if I said that this does not scare me. While I have taken on this new role, many of the conventional roles have held on. For various reasons I am still going to be the primary care giver and home maker . One of the reasons being that those are the only roles I know to do with absolute certainty. Almost all my female role models growing up were stay at home mothers or at the most teachers, who in my mind were just extensions of a mother. So on most days the part of me I am most sure of, nimble footed at, are being the mother and the person who runs the household.
However my journey has to have a meaning. Maybe this is a journey to create a new role model for all the girls who like me have been brought up on the notion that their primary role was to bring up the children, take care of the house and support the man as he went out to earn. When they see me I hope they can realize that life is unpredictable. The best thing you can do for yourself is to get an education, learn a skill and get the qualifications that will set you up to earn a living. Role model or no role model, you may have to step up to the task and simply put, its just easier when you are prepared.
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