By Dr. Marianne Thomas
Mother’s Day is a cause for celebration across America. Churches plan services around the day and often recognize the moms in attendance. Restaurants offer specials when you bring mom to brunch. Florists count on children to send beautiful arrangements across the country. Schools encourage children to make accoutrement for mom to bring to the office and show off. Everywhere you turn there is an image inviting us to share in the Mother’s Day cheer.
Often, women exit the life of human trafficking having given birth to children. As the women are learning and healing, the children are also on their own journey of healing. For some families, that can mean that the children are at home with the mother and are learning and growing and healing together. For others, the children may be in a program working on their own healing while mom is in a program working on her healing. And then, for some others, they have lost their children to the system, to the streets, or to the grave.
For some of our employees in The rePURPOSE Project work-therapy program Mother’s Day can be especially hard. Everywhere they turn, some well-intentioned person wishes them a “Happy Mother’s Day.” There is another sign or flower or greeting that reminds them that they do not have their children. Every memento or gesture is another stab in the heart and reinforces the negative self-talk that says they aren’t a good mom or even that they don’t deserve to have their children.
Our role at One Purse on the continuum of care is to teach the women in-demand job skills for employment sustainability. For women who are working to get their children back from a program, from family, or from the state, having a job is the first priority. Nothing else they accomplish matters if they do not have a job that can pay the rent. Sure, most case plans require the women to take parenting and other life skill classes (which are also provided at One Purse), but the one thing that can hold them back from welcoming their children home is employment that pays for that home.
One of the best things we can do for a mother who has exited a life of trafficking is to walk alongside her as she welcomes her children home in a healthy and loving environment.
