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The same morning, most of the time before sunrise, you are up and all set to take up the charge of the pile of chores that is waiting for you. The day long work, all time bound awaits you every day and there is no full stop to what you have to do and when you will call it a day. You need to be perfect in every task, and why not? After all, you are going to be a stay at home mom, what else will you do? This is something most of the woman experience and recently Bollywood Actress Shilpa Shetty went vocal about it. Her thoughts are an honest portrayal of what a stay at home is perceived as. This might surprise you, thinking what exactly a celebrity like Shilpa would know about all this, but the reality is different, her thoughts echo the reality:
How does your day starts, it must be waking up early, doing preparations for the breakfast, waking up the baby, bathing her and then packing tiffin boxes for everyone who is going to leave the home, except you. Then starts the cleaning regime dusting, brooming, vacuuming and more. As soon as you finish this you are now to prepare the lunch which would be followed by the preparations for dinner and so on. While all this is a token of love or let us say a duty that you need to fulfill without fail, there is one fact that stays persistent and that is you are doing a ‘Thankless’ job that no one would ever notice.
Shilpa Shetty is a mom to a 5-year-old son, Viaan and has been working post motherhood. She hasn’t worked as a mainstream actor but is active in her husband’s production house. She says she is lucky as she thinks that stay-at-home-mom has one of the greatest – but also the most thankless – jobs ever.
There Are No Salary, No Breaks And A Lot Of Overtime
A stay at home mom does everything, she is a maid, a parent, a wife and much more. When she is at home, the need of hiring an external help seems like going out of the budget. She needs to be on her feet as we sit, enjoy and relax at our home.
Shilpa says,“If you are a homemaker, it’s even more than a full-time job. In a job, you have breaks and you can switch-off. Here, it’s a thankless job. You are underpaid and overworked!”
Judged By The Society
You will be under the constant scrutiny of the society. Not only this but there come advice and recommendations. Even Shilpa says she goes through all this despite being a celebrity,
“It’s not anybody’s business to comment on what I do or don’t do as a mother. People think of me as an actress first, and then maybe, a mother. For me, being a mother comes first. I do what’s best for my child and I also take advice from others.
I don’t judge people, but I know that people judge me for my clothes, for the person I am, for being a celebrity.”
Constantly Multitasking
You cannot master a single task but you need to ACE everything. While working mom has a constant focus, you as a stay at home mother needs to do everything and anything to perfection.
Shilpa says,“Women are doing everything and anything. I can even go to the extent of saying that they are doing it better than men. There isn’t anything that we are not capable of doing. We are multi-faceted personalities and are able to multi-task much better than men.
We look after our family. We take care of our in-laws, children, our husbands, which is a full-time job in itself…”
We need to change the notion. Mothers are great and they must be respected for what they do. Let’s stop judging other moms and instead come together to support each other. We are all mothers and have struggles of our own. Working or stay-at-home, we are all doing a fabulous job for our family and children, the best we can, and that’s ALL that matters, says Shilpa.
