Three types of mothers

This week I met three mothers. They are completely different types.

One of them is 32 years old, and Last Friday the fifth girl was born. (She has five kids and all of them are girls.) Her eldest daughter who is 11 years old, is my student. I love her, and I love her family. Her husband is an office worker. so I think it's not easy to manage their life. However they seem to enjoy their simple life. I know they seldom go out for dinner but they often enjoy having a BBQ. The mother is not a grade-conscious mother, but she and her husband let their kids take one extra lesson. Their eldest daughter takes English lessons and the second eldest daughter does soccer practice. The others are too small to take extra lessons. They educate their kids well. Having five kids is not usual in Japan. And probably it will be probably difficult for all kids to attend university. But I think the five kids can manage their own life. They have enough inner strength.

I also met a mother who is as old as I, but her youngest son is still a high school student. This spring he could enter the highest level  high school in Utsunomiya. She is really proud of him. She is a homemaker and her husband is a doctor. She said clearly "the last work that parents can do is to let (or make) our kids enter into a high level university.
She is a really grade-conscious mother. I don't agree with her idea, or disagree with her idea either. I understand her feeling, though I failed to let my daughters to enter what you call a high level university. And Yuki and I didn't graduate from what you call the highest-level of university.I'm little bit worried about her if her sons would go off the rails.

And at the gym I met a mother who is a little older than I. Last year she was fighting cancer, and now she overcame. There are four members in her house, her husband, her son, her daughter and her. Her son is 26 year old and now he has a part time job. When he was at university he suffered from depression. He managed to graduate from university, but he didn't get a regular job. Her daughter works as a contract employee. She also didn't get a regular job here in Utsunomiya, though she graduated from university in Tokyo because of this economic depression.
But the mother is really active and powerful I like to talk with her. In two weeks we'll go to lunch after the gym.There are various types of people, I know. Everybody is not wrong. Anyway what they have in common is they still live with their kids and busy as homemakers.