Last week, on this newspaper and on its blog much was said about working mothers and their effect on the stability of marriages. I was raised by a working mother, a fully trained teacher who upon marriage had to renounce her right to remain in employment. When I was still three years old and my sister a few years older, the laws changed and my mother could become a working mother.

Things went smoothly except for a few instances when my then “wise” teachers, all unmarried women, used to taunt us in front of a whole class that my mother loved her students more than us because for once she could not attend a school concert. This was obviously not true!

Did my parents’ marriage end up on the rocks? Definitely not! My mother and father both worked hard to raise us and showered us with attention and love but they did not neglect themselves as a couple and as individual persons. My father loved my mother so much that he trusted and gave her the support she needed to carve out a career in teaching.

It is true that we spent an hour each day at my grandma’s house. Was that a bad thing? Definitely not! The relationship I had with my grandparents was so strong that I still miss them both and wish they are still alive so that my children would have had the opportunity to learn from their experience.

When my grandma was not well and needed to be taken care of, it was my turn to help out my family in taking care of her and give her back a little of what she gave me.

The truth about marriage stability is not whether a woman goes out to work but if both husband and wife love and respect each other as individuals and work together to raise their children. Spending time with your family (children and spouse) should be the number one priority not only for the working mother but also for the working father.

I have written all this in praise of my mother and father who are a living example of how to live my married life.