Do I not value my family if I work for a wage? Do I have to qualify my role in society as a “working mother” and hope that people do not think less of me? Do I have to choose either to work or to be a mother?

Honestly, I am not part of the The One Percent.

Sure, I work. I even like the wage. It helps to provide for my family.

However, my labors are not just for the wage. In them I demonstrate to my children a level of responsibility and collaboration necessary for our society to thrive. I thrive in my labors as a result of the respect and support provided by employer as well as my husband and partner in life.

Family time is important to me too, and multi-tasking simply provides me opportunities to express my love, honor, and values.

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Monday, November 7, 2011. As part of the Thirty Days of Thanksgiving motif, am thankful be employed and to have an amazing family. Today’s post was inspired by the writing prompt on NaBloPoMo and courtesy of Rikki Lake: “Making family time is important to me. How do you balance your children, relationship, and work life?” (Was she implying that working mothers don’t think family time is important? While Ms. Lake didn’t need to qualify her statement, I almost feel offended in how her prompt was couched. I’m sure her question wasn’t meant to be disrespectful. But honestly, family time is probably important to 99.9 percent of working mothers. We are usually working due to economic reasons. We all aren’t part of the 1%. Okay, stepping down from my soap box now.) Annoying qualifying language: I usually create an image with each of my posts. However, as I VALUE my family time and it’s getting late tonight, I didn’t do it.