Simple word doesn#039;t give moms#039; work credit

Published 12:00 am Saturday, May 8, 2004

Since we're a culture that likes to define one another by our titles and other labels, the word "mom" simply is not sufficient to encompass what the world's mothers do each day.

And today is the perfect day for protest. It is the best day of the year to point out this great literary injustice.

Think about it: some people have humongous titles, rightly or wrongly. But long titles usually provide an air of importance. Reporters notice such things - especially newspaper reporters - since trying to be brief and accurately describing someone's title can be difficult.

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One of our staff's most troubling titles with which they must word wrestle with is Bill Dingus' multi-word title.

Dingus' current title is: executive director of the Lawrence Economic Development Corporation and the Greater Lawrence County Area Chamber of Commerce.

Try saying that five times fast. It's equally difficult to cram that title and much else into a concise sentence.

Dingus is also former dean of Ohio University Southern, which often gets clipped for space sake. Oh yes, and he has a PhD, too.

Don't get me wrong, Dingus is a great guy and deserves a long title, but I suspect, he'd be among the first to agree that the word "mom" may be a less-than accurate moniker for the people who help create us and nurture us.

The word itself is kind of interesting. Aside from being a palindrome, or a word that reads the same when read forward or backward, the word "mom" is largely unexciting and apparently became popular in the late 1800s as a child-like abbreviation for "mother."

Regardless of its meaning, use of the word "mom" is pervasive today. A quick Internet search on Google returned almost 37 million entries on the World Wide Web. That is nearly four times as many entries as a similar search for the word "dad" yields.

My mother's written title would be: Beverly Cooper, mom. Somehow, it just doesn't sound all that impressive.

Three letters cannot begin to describe what mothers do, day in and day out. From changing our diapers when we are young to putting up with our teenage angst a little later to putting up with our adult behavior later still, a mother's work is never done.

Written as a job description (culled from the Internet), few people would apply.

JOB DESCRIPTION: Long-term team players needed for challenging permanent work in an often-chaotic environment. Candidates must possess excellent communication and organizational skills and be willing to work variable hours, which will include evenings and weekends and frequent 24-hour shifts on call.

RESPONSIBILITIES: Must provide on-the-site training in basic life skills, such as nose blowing and shoe tying.

Must have strong skills in negotiating, conflict resolution and crisis management. Ability to suture flesh wounds is a plus.

Sounds appealing, doesn't it? And hardly deserving of a puny three-letter word, but until we can come up with an amazing word, fit for such amazing people, "mom" will have to do. Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

Kevin Cooper is publisher of The Ironton Tribune. He can be reached at (740) 532-1445 ext. 12 or by e-mail to kevin.cooper@irontontribune.com.