This week, I noted in passing that someone estimated the employment value of women who run households at $134,000 a year. The figure includes everything from transportation services and food preparation to teaching and counseling. Not to mention the skills of management, leadership development and collaborative teamwork.

I don’t know how serious that calculation is, or who is behind it — so much of the conversation about women and men is politicized to the point that it’s difficult to say anything without offending . . . everyone. The point I took from calculating the prevailing cost of services routinely performed by mothers has more to do with the value of work and community and relationships than role-playing . . . for example, why would you even try to quantify “motherhood?” There is no real way to place a value on everything that word encompasses. Apart from rare cases when the term “mother” expresses a mere biological “coincidence” the term transcends money and market forces.

Approaching Mother’s Day it is worth revisiting something that none but the most sensitive children are capable of seeing in childhood . . . that our mother’s held down one of the most demanding, time-intensive and, sadly, thankless jobs on earth. And, beyond that, they were partners or sole proprietors in one of the oldest, most widespread commercial enterprises on earth . . . the household.

We have recently used the term oikos several times in this space. oikos is an ancient Greek term describing a household — not a Leave It To Beaver/Father Knows Best/Ozzie & Harriet household with a dad who commutes to work and a mom who bakes and tends iconic schoolchildren, but an extended family business. oikos is the essential economic structure of high-functioning non-industrialized societies (oikos is, in fact the root word from which we get the words economy and ecology).

There have always been (and I expect always will be) local economies built around communities of healthy household businesses. The chief characteristic of these households is that everyone — grandparents, parents, adult children, hired hands and kids — everyone contributes.

The Book of Proverbs concludes with this thumbnail of the oikos:

A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies. Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value. She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life. She selects wool and flax and works with eager hands. She is like the merchant ships, bringing her food from afar. She gets up while it is still dark; she provides food for her family and portions for her servant girls. She considers a field and buys it; out of her earnings she plants a vineyard. She sets about her work vigorously; her arms are strong for her tasks. She sees that her trading is profitable, and her lamp does not go out at night. In her hand she holds the distaff and grasps the spindle with her fingers. She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy. When it snows, she has no fear for her household; for all of them are clothed in scarlet. She makes coverings for her bed; she is clothed in fine linen and purple. Her husband is respected at the city gate, where he takes his seat among the elders of the land. She makes linen garments and sells them, and supplies the merchants with sashes. She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come. She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue. She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: “Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.” Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised. Give her the reward she has earned, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.

— Proverbs 31: 10-31

This woman is a serious businessperson in a serious enterprise. There is nothing cute or otherwise trivial about what she contributes to her extended community — from jobs to quality goods and services to well-raised children. The fact is that most of us don’t work in the economic context of the oikos. That fact is no reason we can’t learn from the oikos spirit. Tom Peters notes that women-owned businesses employ one of every four American workers — more workers in the U.S. alone than the Fortune 500 employ worldwide.+ There’s nothing cute about that either.

In this passage from the Proverbs I see shades of my two grandmother’s – who were very different – but part of the developing early 20th century California landscape . . . both very industrious and “about their business.” And I see shades of my mother and other women I know directly or indirectly — whether parents or not — who more than pull their weight, regardless of the size or source of their income. And we have not even begun to address the mother who holds two careers . . . one where she operates a household and one where she is more directly engaged in the marketplace.

As we approach Mother’s Day, please join me in stopping to ponder the indescribable, undefinable character wrapped up in the concept of “mother” and the household she operates . . . and marvel at the grace of God toward us all.

[+] Re-imagine, Tom Peters, 2003, Dorling Kindersley Limited, page 174