Myths of the Basket Life: Too Much Time

Another big topic that people seemed to want to address with me was having too much time on my hands or needing to get a job. People seemed to think I could make much better use of my time, instead of writing on this blog. For example:

You are so completely spoiled and out of touch with reality that you complain about having to travel overseas with young children? I encourage you to take a trip to the slum just north of delhi where mothers cart their young children as they make bricks for a few pennies a day, or the border of south africa and swaziland where young mothers make incredible journeys with no resources on foot or by bus with young children to find work or husbands that went to work in the slave-like conditions in the diamond mines (i’m sure you own a few blood diamonds). Why don’t you take some of the time you spend writing this completely worthless blog and actually do something to make a difference? Your sense of entitlement is stunning. Go live in a refugee camp for a week and see how you feel. I’ll bet you won’t be bitching about your hard life any longer.

In response to hearing that I need to get a job or that I need to do something that makes a difference: I do have a job and it makes the biggest difference I could possibly make. I am caring for my husband, home and 3 children. There is nothing more I could possibly do than spend time pouring into three young people who will be part of the next generation. It saddens me to hear that people no longer consider being a full-time wife and mother a job. My days are filled with schooling my oldest, caring for the basic needs of all three, training and disciplining their young hearts, serving my husband, doing the basic tasks of the home and looking for ways to uplift my family and friends at home and here. Add into that the responsibility I feel to grow in my own faith through daily Bible reading, prayer and stimulating my mind through the reading of books and listening to sermons and my down time is usually not much. This blog is usually written in between daily tasks and often broken up by requests from others in my family.

And I know lots of other wives who work jobs while they are over here. They may teach English or work as a translator. And still other wives stay in the United States and work and care for children while their husbands play. Again, I know there are plenty of wives of professional athletes who simply spend their days shopping and at the salon, but that is not true of all.

Obviously, mothers who have to make bricks while hauling their children hundreds of miles have it much harder than me.  I would not want to have to do that and in no way think my life is as difficult.  But God has called us each to different things.  And to try to be faithful where God is calling you in your life should be the goal of us all.