Confession of a Working Mom

A working mom is a juggler who multi-tasks as time is never enough! She rushes home every workday to see her brood. She is guilt-striken when she has to work overtime or travel; she feels the same when she has to apply urgent leave to mind her kids. She is afraid to be seen as being not committed to work by her superiors and peers. She tries relentlessly to perform at work and at home. She is ... me.

At Kieran's kindergarten Principal-Parent Meet early this year, one SAHM (stay-at-home-mom) said that her stress for staying at home way surpassed that of a working mom. She put 101% to her family and kids' well-being and when her child fails her, she becomes depressed and felt all that she has done were not rewarded or appreciated. While I was never a SAHM, I can relate to what she was saying and couldn't agree more.

I told hubby that if we were loaded, I would like to have 4 kids, be a SAHM and have 2 domestic helpers. It is of course wishful thinking. Some may say it is still possible to have 4 kids - just make do with whatever we have. But it is easily said than done for 1. we are not young anymore and 2. our quality of life will head South.

Being a working mom and having no other relatives to help mind the kids, Yani becomes a great help to us. Our kids adore her and she dotes on them. Yani is from Indonesia, joined when Kieran was 6 months old, she could barely speak English then! Almost 3.5 years now, she can converse in English pretty well and some of our friends thought she's from the Philippines. However, she plans to return home soon and it will be hard for us to find someone as good as her. While Kieran goes to a Kindergarten and childcare centre on weekdays, Yani minds Raeyen all by herself. So to get another trusty helper is going to be really tough! Like they always say, cest la vie! Till then, we will just take one step at a time.

"That fact is that child rearing is a long, hard job, the rewards are not always immediately obvious, the work is undervalued, and parents are just as human and almost as vulnerable as their children'" Benjamin Spock