#ChooseToChallenge with Annie Zhang

By Annie Zhang

March 9, 2021

As a woman, your friends and families may tell you the following:

“If you are feeling so overwhelmed and stressed in your job, just quit and be a stay-home mom or housewife. You don’t have to challenge yourself.” Often, women who have a successful career or professional job are valuable to their families and the society. The value of supports and contributions that a housewife or stay-home mom provides is often underestimated or neglected.

In my career supporting families who have children with disabilities, I saw so many stay-home moms shouldering the primary responsibilities of taking care of their children. They take their children to different appointments (e.g.medical, school, community) and participating in training, learning different strategies to support their children. Some moms may have language barriers, but they still take the courage to advocate for their children. Their efforts are often getting unnoticed as they don’t have a 9-5 job.

I #choosetochallenge to create a more inclusive environment where we value all types of contributions in society no matter how big or small they are.