Why can’t us mums give ourselves a break?

After giving birth to my daughter only a week ago I found myself feeling guilty watching my hubby cleaning and cooking while I rested. Why is this? During a long and very hard pregnancy I spent my days looking after a house and a 3 year old in between vomiting and nights at hospital getting rehydrated through a drip. So why is it that after all that AND giving birth I still can’t let myself relax?

I hear so many mums talking about how exhausted they are and majority of responses are always negative. And the sad part is a lot of the negative responses are from other mums. Are we so concerned with trying to be super mums that we happily put other mums down instead of supporting them? Through the course of my pregnancy I was asked so many times why I hadn’t stayed at work and it seemed no matter how sick I was it was still not a good enough reason for everyone else. I even had people comparing me to others and suggesting that I wasn’t as sick as I thought and it was all in my head.

I really believe that society makes us feel like being a stay at home mum is just a day spent watching TV and eating tim tams. It is the most under acknowledged job that anyone can do and yet it is the hardest job by far. We don’t get paid by the hour, nor do we get specified lunch breaks and overtime. We work 24/7 and just hope that we will get a spare moment to eat during the day. We don’t get extra benefits for being on call all night, unless you call sleep deprivation a benefit. We are the backbones of a household yet when we need to take time out for ourselves we are deemed to be spoiling ourselves.

Same goes for the working mums. It’s not an easy decision to go back to work. And the working day isn’t 9 till 5. There is still another job waiting for you when you get home exhausted. If you’re not copping it for going back to work to soon you will be made to feel lazy for not being back at work soon enough.

I really hope that the day comes when mums will be acknowledged for the huge amount of work we do and instead of being classed as bludgers we will be treated as precious as we are.