Member-only story
I’m a Stay-At-Home Mum in a World of Stay-At-Home Parents
And I finally feel seen
An odd feeling was washing over me, like a strange déja vu from the past and I had a hard time putting a finger on it. I was trying to figure out what bugs me about being on lockdown; when my daily routine is not much different now than it was a month ago; when I am still working from home just like I had been doing it in the past two years; when because of my kids my social life is next to nothing anyway.
Then it hit me! I realised that I just time-travelled back to the time when I was a stay-at-home mum with two toddlers — two years apart from each other. And I recalled how much I hated it.
When I exchanged my high-paying fancy job to become a full-time mother — even if it was just for a short time — I felt that the world just turned upside down. I loved my daughter (and then both of them) and I loved spending time with her, I enjoyed being a mother, but I hated everything else around it.
I hated that I wasn’t useful anymore as a colleague. I hated that I was supposed to cook for myself. I hated to do the laundry. I hated ironing baby-clothes the most. I didn’t think these activities were useful — I believed they were a waste of time and I could have been doing so many other things instead. I was caught in a constant frustration…
