“My Mother Never Worked” is a story of a hardworking mother who has been working since the day that she got married. She works on a farm, planting crops and feeding the farm animals. Although she is what society might call a “plain housewife”, she never really stopped working. She works during the day and even at night. She takes care of her children, seeing to it that all their needs are met. She assists her husband in everything he does in the farm. However, despite all these things that she does, she is still not entitled to any Social Security benefit except from her husband’s pension. Unfortunately, when she died, she is not entitled to a death benefit from Social Security because according to them she “never worked”. Moreover, even her children cannot receive any benefit from Social Security.
This story clearly depicts how society views the role of a housewife. She is never really seen as an individual who works, simply because she does not go to office and does not have an eight to five job. However, we see in this story that the mother works even longer than the usual office job of eight hours. A mother’s job is usually taken for granted not only by one’s family but also by the government and society, as proven by the definition of Social Security as to who is a wage earner and who is entitled to benefits.
There are several reasons why one can relate to this reading. One has many relatives who are housewives and one can see how dedicated these women are to help support their families. Although they may not be earning dollars for doing their responsibilities, one realizes their great contribution to their family and the society.
Another reason why one can relate to this story is because one’s mother has a friend who was recently widowed. All her life, she is a housewife who never worked since his husband has a good paying job. They have received the benefits that they are entitled from the husband’s Social Security. The widow now is trying to look for a job because she says that when she dies, she needs to think of her children’s future. She knows that as a housewife, she is not entitled to any benefit from Social Security. One finds it really unfortunate that the government does not recognize the job of a mother as something worthy of Social Security benefits. Maybe it is about time that the government looks into this discrimination.
The third reason why one can relate to this story is because one realizes the value of one’s mother. One’s mother is a working mom. She has a full-time job in an office. However, after her office hours, she rushes home to fix the dinner and do the laundry. After reading this story, one learned to appreciate one’s mother more. One’s mother knows that upon retirement from her job, she will get her Social Security benefits. But as a mother, she will never reach an age of retirement. She will be a mother all her life and will not get monetary benefits for being one. She knows this, yet she never complains. The realization that one gained from this story is that one’s mother worked in an office, with the promise of Social Security benefits, but ironically, she works even harder at home, sans the benefits!
Works Cited
Smith-Yackel, Bonnie. "My mother never worked." n.d.
