"It's not all about the money." Oh yeah?

I have been told that in making choices specifically about this current career, it's not just all about the money. Look at the opportunities you could have, the new learnings that you gained that you wouldn't have if you were elsewhere...

BUT, in a world where there are more withdrawals than deposit slips, where stacking credit card bills display grocery (not out-of towns, not fancy restos, but grocery) trips loving a lot of zeroes in it, where an 8.8kg little boy gulps PHP900.00 in a week and pees on a thousand worth of diapers a month, where the same little one shrieks as a PHP5,000.00 vaccine is punctured through his thigh, a world where milestones usually mean looking stoned without sleep even from a mile, a world where your health is assumed to be devoid of any necessary checkups or care, a world where your functions are not necessarily proportional to your designation (and therefore your pay), in a thankless world where your efforts seem to be invisible -- in that kind of world, I hate to admit it but it suddenly becomes all about the money.

Imagine the feeling of having nothing to look forward to but having to leave your child for it? Add to that more feelings of guilt because your duties as a mother is transferred to your own mother who in turn is struggling in her own career because she has to take over what should have been your role? The result of which are more financial challenges for your mother, something you should at least alleviate but cannot because you yourself are struggling? How fair is that?

The funny thing is, all that I'm really ranting about is having what it due us -- in industry standards.

So sue me if I beg to disagree that it's not all about the money. In my world, IT IS.