Moms everywhere are trying to attain a work life balance. Nice Cliche ! What moms really want is a perfect world, where they can work 9 to 5, manage their home, take care of the kids and have healthy relationships with their spouse and family without feeling as if they are running a daily marathon.
A perfect world? Who are we kidding? Whether you have one child or many, mommy's world is always hectic. The term working mom includes stay at home moms and those who work 9 to 5 at a regular job outside of the home. The demands are the same and the exhaustion is equally deadly. Many years ago my grand mother told me that "once a mom always a mom". When the children are young they tie up your feet and when they are older, they tie up your heart.
Ladies, being a mom means that you will be in it for the long haul. Children demand physical and emotional attention for many years to come. The minute you bring baby home, or better yet the minute you give birth to baby the marathon begins. All is well with the world except that the excitement bubble is about to "bust", leaving mommy totally deflated. Moms get deflated not because they are unhappy but because of the fear of not being able to sufficiently take care of the precious babies. Yet, the love that mommy's have for the their children is like a buoy in the water. It keeps us afloat amidst all of the daily tasks including, doctor appointments, school trips, cleaning, cooking, laundry, school conferences, music lessons, soccer practice, tutoring, spills and thrills, which leaves us with deep exhaustion.
Exactly what is this marathon? It is our desire to sufficiently provide for our children. Not only to supply their basic needs of food, clothes and shelter, but to equip them with the intangible. We aim to provide them with roots so that they can be strong and wings so that they can fly. As moms we aim to give our children the best education, exposure to different facets of life and to various extracurricular activities. We aim to build their moral conscience and develop their social and religious awareness. Moms need lots of support and encouragement to make the impossible happen or at a minimum to plant these seeds of awareness in our children.
This requires constant reinforcement and long-term commitment, hence the comparison to a marathon. The struggle comes in because we are trying to achieve all of the above with divergent forces at hand. There are racial, financial and demographic factors that make the journey difficult. Moms everywhere are running their own personal marathon in a world that is far from being a utopia.
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