A mother's job, and love, is priceless

Inter Lake editorial

How much is a mother worth?

Most would agree that the work mothers do for their families is priceless. A mother's love simply can't be measured in dollars.

Or can it?

Salary.com, a company that builds software and gathers data, conducted a survey of more than 18,000 mothers, both working and stay-at-home moms, to determine how much time mothers spend doing their job and how much it's worth.

The survey revealed that mothers spend an average of nearly 95 hours a week - that's 55 hours of overtime weekly - performing 10 job functions equal to an annual salary of $116,805 for a stay-at-home mother. Working mothers' at-home salary was worth $68,405 this year. That amount is in addition to the salary they earn in the workplace.

Job titles that best matched a mother's definition of her duties, the study showed, in order of hours spent per week, were housekeeper, day-care center teacher, cook, laundry operator, computer operator, psychologist, facilities manager, van driver, chief executive officer and janitor.

Surveys like this make us smile, and mothers probably will chuckle over the financial validation of their work. Motherhood isn't something that's done for money. It's done for the love of her children and there's nothing sweeter on this Earth than the unconditional love of a mother for her child.

Motherhood, of course, takes many forms. Stepmothers, foster mothers, single mothers, mothers who adopt, grandmothers raising grandchildren all play an integral role in nurturing our society.

In today's Inter Lake we read about Sallie Hejl, a single career woman from Whitefish who adopted two children from China. Hejl was 51 when she adopted her first child, 53 when she adopted the second. Most women her age are finished with or nearing the end of their child-raising days. But she smiled when she talked about her daunting role as a new mother, saying "it's the best thing I've ever done."

We salute all mothers on this special day. You are loved, and you are priceless. Happy Mother's Day.