Motherhood. Stop talking about how HARD...

Motherhood. Stop talking about how HARD...

Steven Senne/AP

Republican presi dential candidate Mitt Romney is shown hugging his wife Ann hug during a recent campaign event. Ann Romney is firing back at a Democratic consultant who is suggesting that the wife of a wealthy presidential candidate shouldn’t be talking about the economy’s toll on women.

Its about a month early for a Mothers Day column, but for a week now, political, social and moral groups have been fighting about mothers with jobs and mothers who stay home, further evidence of how complicated things have become.

Motherhood used to be a simple, sure, concrete thing, that was

equal parts wonderful, heartbreaking, joyful, funny, messy, sweet and frustrating.

Mothers were the wind beneath your wings. Unsung heroes.

Mothers didnt need constant appreciation, pats on the back or on the head. The reward was in a child of whom you could be proud.

It has now become a job, a chore, a hardship; something the younger generation of mothers has a c onstant need for praise and adulation.

But now its not enough to just be pat of the simple, basic, time immemorial concept of motherhood. It has to be overly defined, politically correct.

Youre a working mother, single mother, stay-at-home mom, soccer mom, hockey mom, teen mom.

And since Hilary Rosen, a former Democratic Party consultant and now a TV commentator, said of the wife of apparent Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney that Ann Romney has never worked a day in her life so she and her husband couldnt relate to women struggling with financial issues there has been a war of words coming from left and right, spawning hundreds of articles and opinion pieces and talking head spiels.

And it also spawned the usual condescending, feel-good blather about how mothers have the toughest job.

Most of us just do it.

But all you hear is how tough it is to raise kids, even for mothers who dont have to go out to work every morn ing. Stay-at-home mothers moan that they are the

chauffeur, cook, budgetkeeper, housecleaner, etc., and dont even get paid for it!

Maybe your kids dont have to belong to every activity and sports team. Maybe you dont have to hover over them at every game and playdate.

Most families have two or three kids. Its not heavy lifting to take care of them and cook a meal of real food every night and straighten up the house. They do have washing machines, dishwashers, vacuums and stoves, dont they?

There were many rainy or snowy days when I would have loved to stay home with my daughters and do some laundry and clean the bathroom and bake a cake, rather than drive in bad traffic, have to deal with bosses, run around the city on a grim story, meet deadlines. Staying at home is simpler.

And then there is the argument that career women with kids have it so hard, because they also have to do everything at home, and handle the kids, aside from climb ing the corporate ladder.

What woman in this day and age marries a guy who will not help raise the kids or do anything around the house?

Any man born after 1950 knows he and his wife have to share the duties if she has a job. He too can make dinner and do dishes, laundry, go food shopping, bathe kids, change diapers.

Heck, my dad was no believer in womens lib as it was called in the 1970s, but though he held two jobs and my mother was a housewife, he still pitched in with the chores.

And you hear mothers who apparently cant wait for summer vacation to be over so the kids go back to school. I always liked hanging out with my kids.

Whatever choice a mother makes, if she is lucky enough to have a choice, its hers, and its right. But lets stop complaining that motherhood is so HARD. Its always been hard. Its blood, sweat and tears.

No, theres no app for it. Yet.