Journey through a Mom’s Heart

• Are you a working Mom?
• Are your heart and mind constantly battling this guilt of spending less quality time with your kids?
• Do you silently grieve for not being around your kids whenever you feel like?
• Do you drop off your child to daycare or leave with a nanny during their holidays and head to the office?
• Do you hate to miss your kid’s performance due to office requirement or business trips?

If yes to any of the above, then you are already paralyzed by the ‘Working Mommy Guilt’. But believe me, this guilt is real, and we all experience this irrespective of the motherhood phase we are into, it could be to the new working mommies or the seasoned ones.

Undeniably I have gone thru this phase of guilt and depression and have tried to always look for choices to achieve this typecast title of being a “Perfect Mom “. From the age of 2 years when my little one started daycare, I have experienced this mass over heart, whenever I had to drop her during vacations or on the holidays that the school observed for other kids who either had the support of family care or stay at home mum. I had always felt that guilt for not being around my child whenever at our wishes or would have missed any of her performance (which I have tried 200% not to miss) due to office commitments.

This guiltiness was sinking deep until I attended a Parenting workshop led by an established Academician from a prestigious chain of school in Gurgaon, that powered the thought to squash my “Working Mommy guilt”. Through the workshop I was educated on some of the significant facts, on which I lay my faith upon –

“No matter how much I would strive to perfect this work -life balance I would fail countlessly, No matter how much I try to run between the home and office I will still tend to miss out things, and No matter  how much I would strive to overcome this guilt this guilt will be real.”

The very fact that you worry about being a good mom means that you already are one.”― Jodi Picoult

 So, my takeaways from the session were to pause my anxieties, firmly believe that you are doing a great job, and this concept of “Perfect Mom” is unreal. This is a battle you are fighting only with yourself, so refrain yourself from this Self- Judgement. Your choices of being either a working mother or a stay at home mum or nowadays a Flexi-hour mum is all truthful in their directions.

Recognize the fact that its’ OK to let some things slide at times in office to give priority to kids or vice versa, it’s completely OK to enjoy your work space as a working mom, it’s OK to brag about your achievements in front of your kids (with a dash of gratitude)  it’s more than important to carry a sense of pride in all your endeavors and let not the pressure of being a flawless mother seep within you.

Through my experience I have understood and accepted some of the  important elements in this journey of motherhood, that there will always be a handful of people who will discourage your actions, that there will be times that you may miss out on things, that there will never be enough time that you certify as quality time, certainly there will be moments when you will feel sad about missing on the sweet moments, that you will still silently shed tears for not being around all the time but the end you must know this phase is momentary and won’t’ last forever and kids will grow up soon.

Therefore, I recommend Being Positive and refrain from mourning. Enjoy the abundance of goodness this journey of motherhood will keep bringing. Appreciate the magical moments you share with your child and appreciate the fact that you are experiencing this Gift, trust me “You Can’t Do It All” so “Enjoy and believe in yourself that what you’re doing is absolutely amazing.

 “It’s not about how much you do, but how much love you put into what you do that counts.” – Mother Teresa