Working Moms’ Dilemma – I Ask Myself If It’s Worth It

By Isha - Updated: March 29, 2019

Nothing can ever prepare you for becoming a mother. It’s not easy keeping another life alive and thriving. It’s impossible to fully prepare for life with your baby. Motherhood is constant,demanding and exhausting. Women who plan to return to work after maternity leave feel pressure, even if it’s self-imposed, to keep up with other stay-at-home moms and too often focus on what everyone else seems to be doing right.Our responsibilities and concerns at home continue to increase as we resume our duties at the office, all the while trying to secure a private space to pump before milk leaks through our shirt. Many new moms feel there is an expectation at work to act as though nothing has changed. I felt that I had to prove to my team that I am as efficient as I was earlier. But the reality of being available late evenings, on weekends, and what feels like 24 hours, is already draining. Add sleep deprivation to the mix and it becomes overwhelming.Female employees who are working mothers are no less committed to their job. They want to be professional, get their work done, and spend a couple of waking hours a day with their babies. Is that too much to ask? Every moment in office is full of guilt that I am leaving my baby in daycare when he needs me. There’s a feeling of missing his actions and day-to-day learning. I ask myself if it’s all worth it. There is no single moment in a day when I don’t think of my baby, my brain is always thinking what my baby must be doing, and whether he is eating well in my absence. Sometimes, my baby falls sick, and childcare falls through; I run late to daycare and again ask myself if it’s all worth it. But the question is, does being a working mom mean I am taking less care of my child? Just because I am leaving for work, it doesn’t mean that I am not taking care of his needs.I am a proud working mother. I am making him learn how to be independent. I take care of his basic needs, prepare his meals before I leave for work, take him to the park every day after work.I play with him late at night (because he doesn’t want to sleep?) irrespective of how early I need to wake up. And YES, I do have to manage home, job and the baby.I have discovered a whole new level of multitasking being a working mom. I want our society to appreciate and support working moms. These women are strong, and they deserve applause.

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