“Mamma, I have been assigned the project ‘Model House’ to be completed by Wednesday” astonished the child
“Honey, Pot luck is planned on Wednesday and I have given your Signature dish ‘Chicken Manchurian’ for a team of 10” romanticized the Husband
“Hey, ensure the team completes the work before production roll out on Wednesday” bossed the Manager
“Madam, there is a Temple function on Wednesday. So I will not come” excused the Maid
Is your head spinning? But We, the working mothers will manage.
At the time of labour, a mother feels up to 57 del of pain which is equivalent to 20 bones getting fractured the same time – a well heard fact. But we stop praising motherhood with just that whereas the real pain begins only thereafter. Postpartum tiredness and sometimes depression, Sleepless nights, frequent nappy changes and so on. As months roll by, a worry slowly starts inclining – It’s time to join the office back…!
With a heavy heart and her soul crying solely, she starts to work with determination every day. One minute she wants to concentrate on the work, the next minute she feels like hugging her baby. The mom at the end of her shift rush back home faster than Usain Bolt with her heart pacing faster than that. Ignoring the yell of elders at home and not taking her husband’s anger to heart, she only yearns to see her child who waits at gate as the clock ticks eight and jumps of joy at the very sight of its mother. The day when her back aches like breaking of work is when the child is adamant to go around the house on an elephant ride on her back. Though she feels like her intestines eat each other of hunger, she lovingly prepares dinner for her entire family before she grabs one. And she wakes up again at an hour which would still be midnight for most of you and the routine continues.
Working women are not just the ones with sarees neatly draped or Kurtis gently pressed. That mother who hangs the cradle of her cotton saree on a nearby tree and work hard cultivating crops on the field, she is a Working Mother. That mother who lets her children play in the heap of sand and being watchful as she carries the brick load on her head at a construction site is a Working Mother. That mother who ensures her kids learn having them next to her as she sells vegetables under the street light, Yes, she is a Working Mother.
All that we expect is not sympathy but empathy. We demand equal rights, treatment and facilities at workplace. It is not our privilege; it is our right! If an expecting mother is released from her job as she couldn’t be productive as before, it is a grave injustice. When a new mom is not welcomed back to work with the prejudice that she wouldn’t give her best – it is a shame.
Gentlemen whose wife is working, please take a pledge to share the responsibilities, help her in kitchen and household. When your kid is sick you can take a day off too. When she is busy preparing dinner, you can help your kid in homework. There are more honey dripping words to women than just ‘I Love you’ – ‘Dear, you deserved this promotion. Congratulations’; ‘I understand that you had a busy day at work, let me get you a cup of coffee’; ‘You chase your dreams, I will be of support no matter what’.
And colleagues of her, when she shares some problems trusting you, at lease don’t discourage her to quit job and just take care of kids. Please don’t react bad when she is on leave as her kid is sick as most of the moms don’t avail leave when they are ill themselves.
Fighting all odds, managing work and caring family with our own passions and dreams getting lost somewhere in between them, we spend quality time with our little ones, nurturing with great care and love, imbibing noble qualities, ensuring righteous upbringing and being a role model ‘The Super Mom’. We are like those colourful butterflies flying with charm of freedom making everyone’s life beautiful but we are not fragile as we emerged cutting our way out of the chauvinistic cultural cocoon.
Yes, we are the Iron Butterflies.
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