During the 2015–2016 ministerial conference, I had the exciting opportunity to babysit my two younger sisters and the 1-year-old son of a visiting ministerial couple. Each morning, I woke up early—before the sun was up—to go through my morning routine and get myself ready before the couple dropped off their son.

Babysitting started at 7:30 a.m. and usually lasted until 1:15 p.m., when the couple picked up their son. It required my full attention. I usually had to hold him the whole time, which limited my mobility. Feeding him was sometimes a two-person job—one person would “airplane” a pumpkin-orange mixture of blended-up vegetables into his mouth while the other anxiously waited for the soonest possible moment to wipe off his face. When he was awake and not eating, I would sit with him, reading small wooden or plastic books about shapes, colors and animals.

At the same time, I was looking after my two younger sisters. They were both old enough to take care of themselves and didn’t require my full attention like the baby did. Yet they occasionally still required my guidance and help. When they got hungry, it was up to me to make food. After eating, it was up to me to clean the kitchen. I had to make sure that their day stayed productive—that they fulfilled their morning chores and did their music practice.

One day, in the midst of all of this, some of my friends called to ask if I wanted to come over and play basketball with them. I hadn’t spent any time with my friends at all during this winter break. It was afternoon, and I wasn’t babysitting the baby. Excitement welled up inside of me at the prospect of being able to hang out with my friends.

While I was on the phone, though, I looked around the house: Dishes sat stacked up on the kitchen like towers, and random things lay scattered around the house. Nothing had been cleaned up yet, and I realized that I hadn’t completed any of the chores my mother had asked me to do the night before.

I sadly responded to my friends that I couldn’t meet with them; I had other priorities around the house that needed attention. I spent the next several hours cleaning the house with the help of my two younger sisters.

As we were completing our chores around the house, I grew exhausted and felt that I needed to rest. Just as I was heading to my bed to take a nap, my younger sister informed me of how hungry she was. She couldn’t possibly wait any longer. She wasn’t interested in the wide variety of fruit we had easy access to—she wanted a full-on meal. So instead of going to my room to take a nap, I went into the kitchen and cooked a meal for them.

My parents came home around 6 p.m., and I sat talking with them for at least an hour. By the time I headed to bed, I was exhausted but felt quite happy, having just finished a productive day. I fell asleep knowing that I would awake the next morning to the same busy routine I had experienced today.

Proverbs 31 describes the varied characteristics of a virtuous woman. Verse 15 says she wakes up “while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household ….” The chapter goes on to list in detail the hard work she does and the many different things she sets her hands to. These scriptures describe a selfless, hardworking woman—like our mothers.

As I considered the “busy, labor-intensive” days of my winter break, I began to realize that my mother experienced those kinds of days every single day. Every day, she rose before sunrise and immediately went to work. Her whole day revolved around us. In the mornings, while we got ready for school, she laboriously worked in the kitchen to prepare breakfast and our lunches.

After dropping us off at school, she worked around the house, doing our laundry and sometimes cleaning our rooms or our messes. When we got home from school, she kept up with all three of us, transporting us to our different extracurricular activities. She made sure we studiously worked on homework and did our music practice. While running around and helping us with homework, she prepared a meal from scratch. After eating, she immediately went to work on cleaning up the kitchen, washing the various dirty dishes, piling leftover food into plastic bags and containers, and throwing away trash.

Sometimes after dinner, she would work on laundry or continue to guide us through our homework. Sometimes, all she did was sit and listen to us, offering counsel and advice when needed. That also takes time. Bedtime for her was as soon as we were all asleep and everything was prepared for the next day.

We all know our parents work. We see them clean up after us, take care of the chores we felt that we didn’t have time to do, and give us instruction and correction that we would be helpless without. I knew my parents were hard workers. But it wasn’t until this ministerial conference that I realized the type of work our parents do. It is a multi-tasked, multi-person, nonstop, selfless job. There is no such thing as a sick day, vacation time or even a day off for them. They are the stage men who work behind the scenes to make sure our daily lives run smoothly.

When you see a mess around the house, clean it up, even if you weren’t its creator. After dinner, jump at the opportunity to do the dishes for your parents. Look for particular jobs to do around the house such as cleaning the bathrooms, vacuuming, taking out the trash, etc. Every little thing will help. And as you do these things, take the time to think about and appreciate the work your parents do for you every day.