Being a parent is work. In other news, water is wet.

Salary.com surveyed 40,000 mothers to find out how many hours a week they work, and what kind of work they do, as part of motherhood.

The typical mother puts in a 92-hour work week, the company concluded, and works at least 10 jobs. In order of hours spent on them per week, these are: housekeeper, day-care center teacher, cook, computer operator, laundry machine operator, janitor, facilities manager, van driver, chief executive officer and psychologist. By figuring out the median salaries for each position, and calculating the average number of hours worked at each, the firm came up with $138,095 -- three percent higher than last year's results.

So being a mother means doing hours and hours of work for no pay, supposedly for responsibilities that might pay well in the working world.

Why the hell don't they forego having kids and stay in the work world, then? If parenthood is all worth it in the end, why do they have to attach monetary value to the work done as a parent? If children are the world's most important resource, isn't raising them reward enough, more so than money?

Obviously not.

Besides, in most places children aren't legal tender for the important things in life such as food, shelter, clothing, and a six-pack of beer.