Dear Working Mom is our weekly love letter to working moms everywhere, where we talk about motherhood, life, work and everything in between…
Dear Working Mom,
First off, let me tell you, you have been doing an amazing job these past few months, handling the new normal of a pandemic, homeschooling, working from home, in addition to wearing all the other hats you wear day in and day out…And you are not crazy, this back-to-school season is terrifying. It is scary to send kids back to school in the midst of a global pandemic, while starting a back-to-work routine we’ve never dealt with before….It is scary to add homeschooling to your list of to-do’s for the next academic year, say good-bye to regular childcare for now, or wonder how this will be affecting your kids mentally…
They call it the new normal, but there’s nothing remotely normal, new or old, about any of this. While we’re all trying to make it work somehow, it’s ok to simply recognize that this season is downright terrifying. That even if we’ll still do it afraid, there’s no shame in admitting that we’re struggling sometimes, or even quite often. That this tiredness that we’re feeling is not procrastination, and definitely not laziness, it’s our bodies and minds asking us to take a respite from this constant treadmill of life, work and everything in between we’ve been on for so long…
You’re not crazy, there seem to be less hours in the day. It is more challenging to carry out a full day of homeschooling, work, and house responsibilities, not to mention elder care and other duties. Above all, it is heart-wrenching to do it surrounded by echoes of premature deaths, economic uncertainty, racial unrest and social distancing…
At a time when you should be looking forward to dropping off the kids at school and driving away in the sunlight, you’re shopping for office supplies to set up the kids’ study station at home. Or you’re buying loads of face masks, endlessly repeating to your kids how they must keep them on at all times in school, while at the same time calming your worried heart…Or wondering if your Black children will be treated any differently at school, as your mind races every time one of Black relatives steps out the door…You’re watching back-to-school pictures with kids sitting at their laptops, wondering how fast reality changed…
No, you are not crazy. You’re not not keeping up, or falling behind, or not pushing yourself hard enough…Give yourself some grace through this season, some room to breathe, some space not to have to find another solution, another workaround, another comforting word or thought to offer to everyone else but yourself…
This is different, this hits hard, and it hits home…And you’re doing the best you can…
Take care,
The Corporate Sis.
