How My Mother's Behavior Inspired Me - Essay Sample

Introduction

Growing up, I have known a lot of women and have become quite concerned with issues that affect women especially their rights. I have had to look into some cultural values that I previously considered being just a natural way of doing things. One of the many paths I took in observing women was expanding my awareness through the personality my mother had and the activities she engaged in her daily lifestyle. To understand my mother's behaviour better, I undertook the study of Marilyn Fridey's book that talks about the lives of various women from 1950s to the current modern days. The women discussed in this book are not extraordinary, they all went to school and got married afterwards.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

In this book, Myra is the main character. She was never fulfilled by the fact that most of her days she spent cooking the roast, changing the babies' nappy and picking her husband's clothes from the dry cleaner (Friedman 32). This makes her seek solace from the neighbouring women who would always spend their afternoons taking coffee. Many years later, her life changes and her children grow. Their household gets better economically. After reading this story, I come to a realisation that the story told of Myra is my mother's.

Most of my life I worked hard to be my father. This is because he had power and control, was intelligent, went to school and had a job. My mother always seemed to be immersed in the activities inside the house, punishing us for not doing this and that. Being a housewife, I thought she was overly dependent on my father. I became a rebellious kid; fighting against tradition and hoping to break loose from any chains that tied her to such a boring life. I never knew that it took so much courage to live through other people and to be able to perform specific suppressed tasks. This book showed me my mother's inner strength, her gentleness and compassion towards my father, and siblings. I decided to ensure that my relationship with my mother evolved. I got closer to her to understand and know her better, why she made those choices.

Listening to her, I noticed her lack of greed and selfishness which helped in shaping her character and personality. She mentioned that the reason she sat with her fellow women to take coffee in the afternoons is that she felt exhausted and overwhelmed and needed a place where she could share similar challenges and feel motivated. As a woman, she was expected to maintain her position in family roles and social life. It is undoubtedly clear that women are expected to keep the house by staying at home. Time, however, has changed, and both men and women can assist each other in many areas in life. In their small meeting, my mother and her friends wished that there would be a forum where women were given an opportunity to tell the world of their capabilities in developing the nation, whether learned or not learned. My mother has gone to school till high school but after getting her firstborn could not get a chance to go back to college. These women were intelligent but only lacked an opportunity to further their education. The society perceived them as people who could bring nothing better to the table aside from fulfilling their marital duties.

Through my research, I realised there were a lot of skills women could learn and perform during their free time that would enable them not to devalue their roles. Sitting together was enough motivation that the women were willing to make a difference in each one of their lives. We decided to come up with a voluntary group for both youths and women, skilled and unskilled. Our projects included; support of the vulnerable children, engaging in international volunteering for community projects and starting an organic farming project. This project was meant to design and respond to youths and women's assets and needs. The first project was vegetable farming. We were able to yield crops and sell, which enabled us to buy some food and nappy for a nearest children's home. The project resulted in more benefits including creating a sense of belonging and fulfillment in my mothers and other women's lives.

Conclusion

Most mothers are capable of taking part in various community activities. Instead of insulting them and thinking they are unwilling to learn, society can sparkle them into a realisation that they hold more power and cards than they can imagine. Women have more time to put their plans into place and take things to their advantage. My mother's behaviour taught me that from the time of conception, a woman is strong and that due to changes in time, society has changed in the way of viewing things. Anyone can travel in the world and around the community's to teach women the value of staying empowered through learning and advancing in school. The war against mental health lies in our own hands - these things we will do because there is no room for giving up on our society. I might not be who my mother was or go through the same experiences but learning about her behaviour was a significant achievement in my life.

Works Cited

Friedman, Marilyn. "Women and Citizenship." (2005): Print.