Moms and people who like them often call mothering the most important job in the world. I’m not sure. The claim is premised by the false assumption that horrible people come from bad parents- something we know not to be true.

There are stories all the time about great people who came from crappy situations and wastes of space that come from perfect suburbia.

I think we should change the phrase from “most important job in the world” to “most important collective job in the world.” When one mom runs away from her family it’s sad. If a whole city of moms ran away or just decided to screw it and not raise their babies, it would prove disastrous. Hence the “collective.”

I can think of many jobs, right off the top of my head, that I think are more important.

Would you rather have an air traffic controller fail while on the job, or the mom next door?

What about a surgeon operating on your heart? Would you rather have him fall into your open chest cavity or see a mom forget to pick up her kid at day camp?

I think we can agree that while motherhood is special and important, it is only the most collectively important job on Earth and there’s nothing wrong with that.