Stumbled upon this picture on my Facebook feed. That triggered an array of deep thoughts to the extent that I wanted to share them on my blog which has stayed dormant for quite a while.
My instantaneous reaction to this picture was, "Seems like an offer too good to ignore. I would go for the cash". The other offers did not seem attractive at all. Wait, I am not a person driven by money. I feel that the money hard earned by one's sweat and blood is the most valuable. But still, why was that my choice? Just because if I pick those 'n' million dollars I would not have to work, can be with my baby throughout the day and run the house in a better manner.
My choice would have been different had I been asked the same question during my college days or even after marriage. How times change!!! Becoming a mother makes one very much vulnerable emotionally; that fear which strikes when learning about some unfortunate thing that had happened to some child, worrying if the amount of food fed to the child is sufficient, doubting oneself if she is doing things right for the kid etc (list doesn't end :-P). Worse still if the mother is a working mother. Leaving for work when a puny little human is crying her / his lungs out; it is like the mother killing a part of herself which desperately wants to be with the child and leaving the house which may make her depressed as well.
The list of challenges a working woman faces - physical and emotional, is quite long in a society like ours. There is a big sea of judgments which she has to swim through. Many people make themselves free to pass multiple verdicts on her like ,"she runs to workplace because it is a rosy bed", "she is lazy to take care of the kid and that's why she runs for work", "she's very money minded", "she cooks for namesake; her cooking skills are pathetic compared to mine" etc. And ironically, most of these kind of judgments are made by fellow females only. May be for just killing time, they make a person a scapegoat and pass judgments or some other deep psychological reason exists, God knows what.
If the mother is a stay at home mother also, she gets judged. She is judged for not shouldering the financial responsibilities of the family. She is judged for having wasted a degree which another deserving candidate would have pursued. She is judged for not running the house in the most efficient manner despite being a stay at home mother.
Now, none of the workplaces these days is a rosy bed. NO. There is heavy workload, there are difficult situations to be dealt with very carefully and also politics. Neither is being a stay at home mom easy. The woman is under a great pressure to run the house with superlative efficiency, make the kids behave perfectly etc. Any one minor deviation, everyone retorts, "Can't she do this, she just stays at home na".
We find it very easy to judge others; you know why? It is just because we don't live their lives. We don't face the battles they face - with fellow humans, with the society or even within themselves. If we see a person facing a difficult phase in life, the best to do is not to judge them. Next we can offer to help if only we genuinely don't judge.
Now next time you roll your sleeves to judge a working woman - stop. She may be having financial issues, she may feel that her work is her identity or she may work because she feel that it completes her. Then the stay at home mother - she is at home because she wants to be with her baby or simply she wants to.
So, stop judging others' life. Start living yours :-)
