Mothering on Nickels and Dimes

This blog post is a part of NWLC’s Mother’s Day 2012 blog series. For all our Mother’s Day posts, please click here.

My whole life, whenever I would thank my mom for doing something for me (or on those few occasions when I might grumble that she was being a little overprotective), she would always respond, “that’s what they pay me for.”

What she was really saying is that picking me up from school in the middle of the day because I was sick, or helping me with homework assignments, or asking if I was eating enough calcium (yes, Mom) was all part of being a parent. But I know that no one ever paid my mom to mother, even though it is hard and extremely expensive work.

So while there was no motherhood bureau paying my mom for raising her daughters, her employer was paying her a living wage with benefits.

Unfortunately, not every mother receives a living wage or benefits like paid vacation time to attend parent-teacher conferences and school plays, or health insurance to care for themselves and their children. Between the gender wage gap, the concentration of women in low-paying jobs, and a slow economic recovery for women, too many moms are parenting on nickels and dimes.

The millions of women who lived in poverty in 2010 aren’t thrilled about it, neither are the hundreds of thousands of women who lost their public sector jobs in the last two years, but a large portion of Congress doesn’t seem to care about struggling families.

Case in point: The budget. In March, Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI) released a budget proposal that would make deep cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, Temporary Assistance to Need Families (TANF), Supplemental Security Income, Supplemental Nutritional Aid Program (SNAP/food stamps), and child care – all programs that women and children disproportionately rely on. Somehow gutting these vital programs (and repealing the Affordable Care Act) would put the country on the “Path to Prosperity.”

Then on Thursday, a majority in the House passed a Reconciliation bill that slashes programs vital to women and low-income families in order to protect the Pentagon from scheduled budget cuts, and protect tax loopholes for millionaires and corporations. Along with making cuts to important aspects of the Affordable Care Act, the Reconciliation bill would reduce SNAP benefits for 44 million recipients, cut benefits entirely for an additional 2 million people, and completely eliminate the Social Services Block Grant, which provides funding for child care and programs for seniors. 

Moms and politicians are both charged with looking out for the best interest of others. Moms across the country are living up to their responsibilities with fewer and fewer resources. The legislators who voted to slash the programs women and children depend on – while planning to give millionaires and billionaires even bigger tax cuts – need to do better at their jobs.