Should Family Be Placed On the Altar of Career?
Posted: Thursday, January 22, 2009
by Ndidi Ngwuluka
http://ndidingwuluka.blogspot.com
I am sure we may have heard such comments like:
"He has done well for himself. He is now the managing director of the company but one of his sons is a drug addict while the other is presently in jail for murder."
"She is a renowned human right activist but her home is in chaos"
Career is like a rubber plate when dropped from a height is not affected by the impact of the fall. It is recovered still as a plate and can still be used. However, family is like a clay plate that falls from the same height but shatters to pieces. It can no longer be utilized as a plate unless the pieces are crushed and re-moulded. Re-moulding will certainly result in something different from the one that broke and there is the possibility of not being impressed with the outcome. So why would you choose to drop the clay plate instead of the rubber plate? A well moulded beautifully designed clay plate would usually be more attractive than the rubber plate anytime any day!
I have always believed that a healthy family breed a healthy society. If there is increase in crime rate in any society, it shows the increasing rate at which careers have been put first before families. Focus on career means there would be no home training for the children and so they are trained on the streets. At least one parent must give up or slow down career so that children can be raised with the right principles. We all have dreams of how we want our families to be but they would not fall right on our laps. We must work! We must put in time, energy and the right attitude for us to have our dream families. The teachers in school usually have more students than they can cope with for them to be able to give each child the required attention. So the major upbringing lies at home with parents who are available and committed to raise great children who can influence their world for good.
An individual's success is usually traced to his upbringing as can be seen in the case of Obama, the president-elect. If his mother and grandmother were alive, Obama's success would have been more fulfilling than any career they would have pursued.
Giving up family for career is a detriment to the career as the damage on family will be a dent, a comma' or the but' to whatever success may have been attained career wise.
This Article has been viewed 1,337 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
Top-level comments on this article: (3 total)Ndidi, a really good article. In my opinion the strength of America was and notice I said was family. Now my mom and dad were laborers and both worker. yet the family was first not the job, the title, the positionn or the money and fame. It seems icovetig we have lost sight of the real values. What you have noted is more common then many care to note. Woman have in my opinion forgotten the high ideals and position of being a mom.Thanks Robert,
It is my heart cry that we change our priorities. Putting family first was one of the things our parents did right which we should emulate.
Regards
Hi Ndidi, Thank you for this wonderful article. It is a sad truth that careers are put ahead of family the majority of the time. As a mom who had to work, my husband and I had to team up to make sure our children came first. I was blessed to have a job that I could start at 5am and be off by 1:00. This resulted in my husband tending to the mornings getting them off to school, and I was able to be home by the time the were out of school. Some people do not have that option, but children can still come first. As you mentioned. Turning down a promotion that will keep you at work longer should be the easy choice if there are still children in the home.God help us all! I am so glad this article was chosen for the front page, I think I would have missed it otherwise. Keep writing. You have good things to say.Thanks Teresa, I must say, your comment is encouraging.I am glad you are encouraged. I mean every word :-) Keep sharing your heart.
Ndidi, this is a very good article. I like the analogies used early on citing the differences between a career and a family by using plates. It validated your point of view extremely well.
To answer the question your article's title asked, I would say, definitely not! I do not like to generalize but am guilty of doing it. I try to be objectionable and see both sides. I can ultimately do what works best for me (my situation) and allow others to do the same thing. They must accept responsibility for their decisions just as I must.
It is obvious there is a breakdown in the family and I feel strongly it is due to an alienation from God. I recall the slogan read on a church's marquee: A family altar, alters a family.
Welcome to SearchWarp! Enjoy a lovely weekend. :)Avis, thanks a lot. I strongly agree with you that the breakdown is due to alienation from God. It sure does have a negative ripple effect from an individual to the people close to the individual. Cheers.
We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.