Can The Mothers Out There Please Take Their Bow.
Motherhood is one of the most beautiful gifts a woman can ever receive. I’m willing to bet that if you asked mothers if there was one moment they could return to in their lives, most would want to go back to when their children were born. Yet, we cannot and should not underestimate how much work goes into being a mom.
Picture this. It’s Monday morning and my friend is at her in-laws in the countryside. Thanks to hybrid work policies she and her husband decided to spend an extra few days up North and work from there for the first part of the week. He’s made himself a cup of tea and is tucked away in a room upstairs by 9:00am. She is downstairs, desperately trying to get her day started, but is responsible for getting their 2-year old daughter dressed, fed, coat and shoes on so grandma and grandpa can take her to the park and give mom a solid morning to work.
It's 10:30am before that happens. Does this scene feel familiar?
Why is it always the mom’s responsibility? Even those of us who are blessed with supportive husbands, who are hands-on dads, still somehow the buck always stops with mom.
Let’s be honest, mothers who work really have two jobs. By the time they show up to the office or get on their morning Zoom call, they have already run a short marathon. And as soon as their workday ends, they are going to run another one. That should be common knowledge by now, and yet the world too often glosses over it.
But what’s more than the average day where everything goes (more or less) ‘right’, people often overlook the many days where some kind of hiccup arises – who picks up the pieces then? Who cuts their workday short and gets the child when they are sick from school? Who organizes babysitters and doctors’ appointments? Who buys the child new clothes when they have grown or packs their suitcase for holidays? Who organizes playdates and birthday parties? It's almost always mom. I don’t say this to come down on men or ‘stick it to the patriarchy’, I say this because if you’re a mom, whatever age your children are, I invite you to stand up and take your bow. You are a rockstar and you are a legend.
Let that stick in. You are a rockstar, you are a legend.
It’s 2024 and women around the world are asking themselves if it’s possible to ‘have it all’. Whatever happened to having ‘enough’? Are we not able to give ourselves a well-deserved pat on the back for just making it through our day in one piece? I am giving you the permission to do just that.
Take a breather, honour EVERYTHING you have achieved today, this week, this month. Whether that’s not shrinking anyone’s favourite sweater or making sure all your kids went to school with a packed lunch, you did it. You are a mom and because of that you must work at least twice as hard as everyone else.