Motherhood: A 24 hour job

As a mother of a 3 month old baby, it finally hit me: this role requires me to be physically and emotionally present 24 hours a day,  7 days a week.  There are no weekends, no holidays.

To say I'm exhausted is not even scratching the surface.

In Singapore, I was working full time as a vice president/deputy head of a department in a bank. It was tough. The hours were long. The people were bitchy and hard to deal with. My boss was completely incompetent and gave me a lot of angst. Simply put,  I wasn't paid a 5 figure sum for nothing. BUT (and that's a big bold highlighted but) I could walk away at 6.30pm. I could walk away on Friday and completely forget about the people/work/issues for 2 full days. I could take a holiday! In fact, I could take several holidays!! Yes, the fact is, I could walk away.

As a SAHM, I can NEVER EVER walk away. My job doesn't stop. It doesn't stop at 6:30pm. It doesn't stop on Friday and even when I do eventually go on a holiday it doesn't stop.

No wonder one of my staff used to tell me that she actually looked forward to going to work and leaving her kids with her mother-in-law! Oh the judgemental thoughts I had of her 😂

So I salute all the SAHMs because it's a tough job and because it's largely a thankless job. It's a job with no monetary rewards, no bonus and no promotions. It's a job that sees no returns until years later and even then you might never be thanked for it. It's a job that has no kpi and therefore has no recognition. It's a job that has no job description so it encompasses anything and everything.

Excuse me while I go clean some poop now.