Do you think mother hood is really 'the hardest job in the world'?

wuboo · 2014-05-11T22:45:52+00:00

no and no.

rulenumber303 · 2014-05-11T22:36:30+00:00

When something goes badly wrong such as a child becoming terminally ill, being murdered or disappearing it is right up there with the hardest jobs.

I think parents are as important to their child as they make themselves.

[deleted] · 2014-05-11T22:26:55+00:00

What do you mean by "hard?" Raising a kid is much more tedious and constant than any other job I've had. But it's not intellectually or physically all that challenging.

What do you mean by "important?"

[deleted] · 2014-05-12T05:14:06+00:00

No, you're not literally toiling for 18 hours for scraps of bread and a few dollars. But it is a difficult, often times frustrating job that rarely cares about your needs, your ability, or your convenience. You can't clock out and go home and rest. Are bed ridden with the flu? Sucks, your 3 year old still needs you to get up and make food.

No, mothers are not more important than fathers. I would say the phrase should be, "Parenthood is one of the hardest things to do."

myfriendscantknow · 2014-05-12T00:03:27+00:00

No, we aren't a women's magazine.

rubybooby · 2014-05-12T08:59:10+00:00

It's not the hardest job, but I imagine if you're doing it properly it's not easy. I think both parents have an equally important role.

juswannabeanony · 2014-05-11T22:00:21+00:00

I think effective parenting is incredibly difficult, period. Is it the hardest job in the world? That depends on the parent's level of investment in their child and the personal dynamic that parent has with their child, some parents definitely have "easier" kids than others. I wouldn't say mothering is more difficult than fathering after the baby is born though, the only way moms have it harder is that they're the ones who put their bodies at risk to have children. I think single parents have it worse than couples. I know single fathers who struggled just as much as single mothers, one of my best friends growing up was raised by her dad.

anonagent · 2014-05-11T22:03:44+00:00

No, and no.

GridReXX · 2014-05-12T01:58:02+00:00

If both parents are parenting then they'll both be exhausted.

[deleted] · 2014-05-12T02:14:43+00:00

Motherhood isn't the hardest job in the world. But it isn't a cakewalk either. I mean if you're doing it right. The birthmother who "took care" of my adopted cousin probably thought it was a cakewalk. But she also only fed him twice a day and changed his diaper every two.

I think mothers and fathers are equally important. They rear their child in different ways and care for them differently because they are both individuals. I learned how to be independent from my mother and how to stand up for myself from my father. Those two things are equally important to me and are only a small bit of the massive amount of things I learned while under their care.

Exner2 · 2014-05-12T16:38:53+00:00

No, but I wouldn't discount it so quickly. Being a good mother is very challenging and requires significant physical stamina, patience, creativity, multitasking abilities, etc. The hours are long and you are "on call" 24/7. But motherhood can be incredibly rewarding. I think the "worlds hardest jobs" are those with many demands and few rewards. Obviously, any kind of slave or sweatshop labor would probably take the cake.

FWIW, I am a mom with a full-time career in a field and setting that most would consider difficult. My workplace is male-dominated and demanding, but I personally find my work to be "easier" than the work of motherhood. I have tremendous respect for mothers who stay home full-time, as that would in many ways be harder for me than being a working mom.

fiat_lux_ · 2014-05-11T21:32:17+00:00

No and no. I'll avoid commenting further since it's the responsibility of the person making the assertion to support it with facts. ..and I believe there really are none.

rulenumber303 · 2014-05-11T23:40:30+00:00

Pretty sure being a solider in war is a lot more difficult and emotionally stressful than changing nappies.

[deleted] · 2014-05-12T07:32:26+00:00

Taking stand up comedy routines seriously, round 1023347.

ADPowers001 · 2014-05-12T20:45:02+00:00

Not hardest but definitely a lot of work and the stakes are high.

I'm glad I had a stay at home mom.

[deleted] · 2014-05-13T02:15:09+00:00

Mentally yes. Physically no. If you are a stay at home mom you technically live at your job. Never leaving work except to get more supplies for work has to suck sometimes.

Archwinger · 2014-05-13T16:35:11+00:00

A question like this presupposes that there is a uniform definition for "hard." Being a fireman is a hard job. It's physically demanding, dangerous, requires some special skills. Being a computer programmer is hard. You have to learn a lot of stuff and how to apply it, which takes some special skills. Being an astronaut is monumentally hard, same logic as above. Being a grocery sacker is easy. While it takes a little practice and thought to do well, any idiot can do it, which is why kids in high school get hired do it part time, why it barely pays peanuts, and why the job doesn't require any specific education, credentials, skills, or experience.

Going by my arbitrary definition of "hard," motherhood isn't hard. Any idiot can have a baby and raise it. People have been doing that since the beginning of humanity, even back when formal education and technology didn't exist. Even back in the times when reading and writing didn't exist, people successfully raised children. This doesn't mean that motherhood isn't important, or that doing motherhood well isn't more difficult than just doing it well enough to not get jailed -- just that the job doesn't require any specialized skills, education, or experience. Anyone can do it.

Along those lines, are mothers more important than fathers? Well, fathers can't get pregnant, carry, and birth a child, nor can they nurse it with their breasts. But those exceptions aside, since raising a child doesn't require any special education, skills, or experience, fathers are as equally qualified as mothers to do this non-hard job.

Aerobus · 2014-05-14T17:54:08+00:00

NO, and NO.

Txspacechick · 2014-05-12T00:20:20+00:00

I think being a stepmother is ( p.s. I'm the regular mom).

[deleted] · 2014-05-12T10:42:29+00:00

I don't know. I don't even know how to tell such things.

But in general even literally doing nothing can be the hardest job because boredom makes you depressed. So I cannot simply say that people who have maybe less to do are luckier than people who have more.

Again I don't know much moms have to do. But I know very well when I was a 16 years old boy and I spent whole summers doing nothing (just vidya games etc.) I was in a vicious cycle that boredom made me depressed and self-hating, the depression and self-hate prevented me from doing activities. The problem was that there was no pressing need to do stuff. Like no financial need.

I think if you look at the whole of 7Bn humankind there is a small minority who follow their passions. But for the rest they just work because there is a pressing financial need. If there was no need they would be bored, depressed and hate themselves, and that would also prevent fixing it like volunteering.

So I hard job or no hard job, everything is hard that does not have the just right amount of challenge. Too much makes you stressed and depressed, too little makes you bored and depressed.

Mothers are more important for young babies because they are more caring. From about 4-5 on boys should have increasingly more time with their fathers to have that kind of role model.

mezzozy · 2014-05-15T18:05:45+00:00

Hardest job? Probably not. Anybody can shit out a kid, feed it nothing but Kraft Mac n' Cheese every night and let it run wild. Aside from obvious breaking of laws (physical or sexual abuse, neglect, etc.), you can't really "fail" at this job. However, I think the more you apply to the job, the more invested you are in your child, the more difficult it becomes. A lazy parent can simply choose the easy route and spank their kid for every misdeed, or a good parent can choose to discipline their child and teach them what they did was wrong and why they shouldn't do it again.

As for the second question, I don't know if one gender is particularly "better" than the other. Prior to the industrial revolution, both the mother and father played a big role in raising their children. The survival of their offspring was important. It's only fairly recently that we've adapted the whole "mom stays at home, dad works" routine. This also seems to imply that for example, there would be something inherently wrong with same-sex couples raising children. Realistically, it's beneficial the more helping hands you have to raising children, but I don't think gender should affect it much.

[deleted] · 2014-05-17T03:16:46+00:00

And being a father is a walk in the park?

HugeSaladFork · 2014-05-12T14:06:19+00:00

Anyone who answers yes to the first question is being ridiculous.

http://www.careeroverview.com/blog/2011/the-25-most-difficult-jobs-in-the-world/

Title	Do you think mother hood is really 'the hardest job in the world'?
Author	GaiusScaevolus
Upvotes	3
Comments	49
Date	May 11, 2014 8:53 PM UTC (9 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/PurplePillDebate
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/PurplePillDebate/comments/25b0rh/do_you_think_mother_hood_is_really_the_hardest/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/PurplePillDebate/do-you-think-mother-hood-is-really-the-hardest-job.285743 https://theredarchive.com/post/285743