The Great Divide Continued...

While working, my baby enjoyed the benefits of day care socialization, and I enjoyed the benefits of a steady paycheck. While home, my baby enjoys a life of all things “mommy” - music classes, play dates, and much less sniffles, while mommy enjoys a life of all things “baby”, music classes, playdates and much less sniffles (Oh, and a few hundred walks around Target each week).

For so long, I was the friend not able to join the play groups, the music classes and the casual walks around the park. My group text thread was silent. My social life, well, dead.

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It felt horrible to no longer be able to join the group for play dates, tote my baby along to mommy and me classes, lunch with other mommy friends or just take a stroll in the mall.  I felt a giant surge of jealousy coarse through my veins like a $10 Whole Foods smoothie from days past, each time I responded to an invitation with, “I can’t, I have to work.”  I sometimes found myself avoiding social media on my really stressful days, just to avoid the stinging realness of my reality.

Now I’m home and some of those same Mom’s have switched sides with me. Because I too, felt the pangs of Mom-guilt, I know exactly what they’re thinking when I call them in the early evening hours… “Of course she has time to call, she’s been home all day.”

And they are totally justified in their feelings… it was not long ago that I felt the same way. That I wished I could have it just a bit easier. That I could find the time to pick up my dry cleaning once a week instead of once a month

Life is certainly easier now, but it would be much more enjoyable without the great divide.

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Michelle Dempsey, Keeping motherhood real… and kind.