Dear Diary,
You know that after delivery, I had plans to join back my job few months down the line. However, my health and my son didn’t allow me to. I quit my job back then and started working from home.
I was happy with the new developments because I could give time to my son and be financially independent too. However society never allowed me to be contented. Whenever I took my son for a stroll in the evening, some or the other person would deliberately bump into me to inquire -” When are u planning to join back work? Isn’t a full time job more respectable and fulfilling? “
Not just this, people never understand the importance of my work. Whenever friends and family make plans and I chose to opt out because of work, they exclaim -” We work full time and yet manage to make plans on weekends. You are working from home and should easily pull out time at your own whims and fancies.” They believe that my job is not a job but just means of keeping myself engaged. According to full time working professionals, WFH is not a big deal and it doesn’t demand as much sincerity and devotion.
Even my family takes me for granted. Everybody follows their own routine and nobody is considerate enough for my work. I always get to hear-“Arey Woh kaam toh kabhi bhi kar sakti Ho na. Baad mein kar Lena. Abhi Yeh karlo. ” Nobody supports me when I say that I need few hours a day all by myself to concentrate on my work. I want somebody to take care of my baby just for a couple of hours. Even after constant nagging and constructive discussions, whenever I sit down with my laptop, every 20 minutes I find someone standing with my kid at the door with a straight face -” Yeh Nai maan raha…kya karein!!” #FacePalm
I believe that it is impossible to make them believe that even I have deadlines and I have to honor them. Even I have incentives and only when I show my dedication towards work, will I be able to grow in future. All this while, I had been trying to change others’ perception.
But today I chose to stand up for myself and change my attitude towards life. Instead of working hard on changing others, it is better to focus on oneself and work on self improvement. And here are 3 things I am going to change to attain peace in life.
1. I will make up a workplace in my room: I will put my laptop with a charger 24*7, decorate my desk and most importantly, put printouts of appreciation notes from my clients. This will definitely give a positive aura to my work and make others get a lil serious about it too. Even I will get a feeling of working in office like environment.
2. Put my son in daycare for a few hours : I intend to put him in playschool cum daycare for 4-5 hours. This is one of the toughest decision I can take and I know that I will be ridiculed by everyone that “why not do a full time job if your son has to go to daycare? “. But, I have my reasons in place. My son will be in daycare for just 4 hours instead of 10. Also after doing my own research, I found the teachers at Footprints Childcare motherly, well trained and empowered with the skills specific to early childhood teaching, including how to build children’s communication skills, language abilities, cognitive and social skills from an early age. I am sure he will add a few more feathers in his cap before he comes back to me to spend the rest of his evening.
3. Plan calls with clients while I take my son out for a walk: There are two reasons for it. Firstly, I will multitask and save time (My son goes on his stroller for good 30 minutes and then gets down to play). So I can walk and talk. Secondly, people around will also get a pulse of the kind of work I handle.
I know that it is always advisable to ignore the flak but sometimes you need to stand up for your respect and self esteem. You need to go an extra mile to make people realize your worth. I hope, tomorrow I will wake up to a new beginnings and positivity around.
Good night My soulmate.
From
Just another WFH mom
Trying to reach out to stars.
Pic Credit: Google Photos
