Being a working mom is so hard. Trying to balance your work life and your home life is impossible: No matter what you do, you’re disappointing someone. And that makes it even harder. But sadly, that’s just the reality of the situation. We can only do our best.
One mom shared a picture drawn by her young child that will strike a chord with any working mom. She admitted that the picture hit her right in the heart, and chances are it will get you too.
The picture tells a familiar story.
Mom Priya Amin shared a picture drawn by her then 6-year-old in a post on LinkedIn.
“At first, I glanced at it and said “oh that’s so good buddy!” but when I looked closer, I read four words that broke my heart – “Mommy, are you done?” to which the “mommy” in the picture answered “No”. I looked at the clock – it was 6:05PM. Then I looked at my to-do list which seemed to be a mile long. My heart sank – although I don’t like to admit it, this is the situation almost every night,” she wrote.
The drawing brought up a lot of guilt for the mom.
In the post, Amin called the guilt she deals with “palpable.”
“Guilt for not doing enough work in the day. Guilt for not being at my best mentally or emotionally. Guilt for spending transactional time with my kids instead of intentional, meaningful time with them. That last type of guilt is what fell on me like a ton of bricks when this sweet drawing landed in my lap,” she shared.
A lot of people could relate to the working mother guilt.
“Thank you for sharing. You are definitely not alone, I feel you sister. I also hear ‘All you do is work Mommy’,” one commenter wrote.
“I do what I can for work from 9 to 5 and then give my total attention for 3 hours in the evening to my children… then after the kids go to bed I put in my second (or third half) of my work day. The pace isn’t sustainable…but my daughters will only be little so long,” another mom wrote.
“My daughter drew almost the same exact thing and handed it to me when she was 5 years old. She is 11 now,” someone else commented. “Little ones don’t understand the difference between WHF mom and mommy mom.”
Amin opened up more about what it meant to see the drawing.
“I actually looked at it, and it broke my heart,” she told Good Morning America. “Well, it sort of warmed and broke my heart at the same time.”
She added that the drawing “reminded me that I need to do a better job” at trying to be more present. And as a boss, she needed to model that behavior for her employees. “Now I work when my kids are in school, but log off when they get home,” she explained.
“It does feel really good to know that your kids miss you and want to spend time with you,” she shared. But she is incredibly honest about the lack of work/life balance. “It’s more of a crazy juggling act, where all the balls are on fire.”
