Bologna Donuts

If a stay-at-home mom could be compensated in dollars rather than personal satisfaction and unconditional love, she’d rake in a nifty sum of nearly $117,000 a year, The Associated Press reported. A working mom who juggles an outside job would get $68,405 for her motherly duties. Those figures are down from last year.

The eighth annual survey by salary.com calculated a mom’s market value by studying pay levels for 10 job titles with duties that a typical mom performs, ranging from housekeeper and day care center teacher to van driver, psychologist and chief executive officer.

The biggest driver of a mom’s theoretical salary is the amount of overtime pay she’d receive for working more than 40 hours a week. The 18,000 moms surveyed about their typical week reported working 94.4 hours.

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“I think a lot of people think we sit and home and have a lot of fun and don’t do a lot of work,” said Samantha Russell, a Fremont, N.H., mother who left her job as pastry chef to raise two boys, ages 2 and 4. “But they should try cleaning their house with little kids running around and messing it up right after them.

“The rewards aren’t monetary, but it’s a reward knowing that they’re safe and happy. It’s worth it all.”

“Providence has at all times been my only

dependence, for all other resources

seemed to have failed us.”

— President George Washington