Needless to say, being a mother has never been a walk in the park. While being a parent brings us a kind of love and joy that we could scarcely have fathomed before our kids were born, it’s also a crucible from which we emerge tougher, stronger and more resilient… yet at the same time with a propensity for love, patience and understanding that we may not have had before. Perhaps this is because parenthood rewires the brain, and makes us capable of things we may never have believed ourselves able to achieve. Let’s dig into how being a mom in 2020 has brought about alllllll the challenges.
Image by Anastasia Gepp from Pixabay
Yet, despite our resilience and seemingly infinite resourcefulness, being a Mom is arguably harder than ever in 2020. We Moms are, by nature, kind of a self-deprecating breed. So let’s just take a moment to remind ourselves of all that we’re managing to accomplish while the world seems to be falling apart all around us. Here are some of the reasons why Moms are having a particularly tough time this year…
We don’t have the sense of community that we used to enjoy
One of the best things about being a Mom was getting to hang out with other Moms. To build a community out of our peers that lent us moral and logistical support when we needed it. Or simply just gave us a shoulder to cry on and a friendly ear to vent to when we wanted to meet up for a coffee.
But for the lion’s share of the year, we’ve been cut off from the community that brings us support, love and laughter.
The same goes for our parents / in-laws
Since time immemorial, young parents have relied on their own parents and in-laws to lend a helping hand here and there as they juggle the dual challenges of work and parenthood. But at a time when our over 60s are particularly vulnerable, most of us are unable to access the people we love so much. Not only are they unable to see their grandkids, we’re unable to rely on he support network that they provide. You really don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone!
Who the Hell knows what’s going to happen with our investments?
Most Moms, particularly millennial Moms, find that every dollar they make seems harder earned than ever. By rule of thumb, most of us aren’t used to having an awful lot of money. And when we do have it, we endeavor to be as responsible with it as possible, investing it astutely in order to provide a more secure future for our kids when, let’s be honest, we’d rather be spending it on a new seasonal wardrobe. But with global markets in flux, you may feel that whether you’ve invested in socks and shares, forex or an overseas investment house for sale, your investments are not the safe bet you assumed they’d be. Whatever you do, try and fight the urge to panic sell your investments. Sure, you may feel that you need liquidity above all right now. But the markets have gotten over worse than this.
There’s more pressure from all sides
Being separated from our support network might not be so bad were it not for the fact that there’s so much pressure coming at us both professionally and parentally. For many of us, our homes have become our workplaces, and there’s a new sense of pressure to keep them clean and tidy and conducive to both relaxation and productivity. We have to juggle our professional responsibilities with stressed, anxious and understimulated kids. While many of us are lucky enough to be supported by co-parents or partners who can pick up the slack, single Moms are having a particularly tough time of it now that downtime is literally non-existent.
Our kids look to us for answers that we don’t necessarily have
Expectation can be a yoke around our necks sometimes. We’re expected to juggle the myriad responsibilities of work and family, and look good doing it. No matter how stressed we may be. What’s more, our kids will be looking to us to bring clarity and simplicity to an impossibly complex situation. They’ll be looking for answers that we can’t possibly provide. Especially when it comes to the dread question “when will things be back to normal”.
Still, whatever life throws at you, you’re a Mom. That means you’re stronger, smarter, more resourceful and more resilient than you know. You will look back upon this annus horribilis and wonder how you made it from January to January… but you will look back on it as a stringer, smarter person.
P.S. This post is brought to you via a sponsored collaboration.
