What Does It Feel Like To Be The Kid Of A Working Mother?

Mother. Mom. Mum. Mumma. Mummy. Ma. Aai. Amma.

Numerous names to call her, but the feel is just the same. It’s the feel of that unbreakable and palpable bond only a mother and a child can share. With every utterance of ‘Ma, the rest of the world fades away and what remains is the child within us rushing towards the all-encompassing arms of our mothers.

Once into her arms, there is nothing else we need or want, just her presence is enough to stop us from crying or throwing childish fits or to find solutions to the biggest worries of life. But sometimes, she has to leave us with a heavy heart as her work comes calling.

It’s not easy being a kid of a  working mother and this is what it feels like:

1. I’ve been told that I didn’t sleep a wink or at least couldn’t stop crying until and unless I felt my mother’s touch or was transferred to her lap

She would come home so tired but still won’t say no to anything. Being a mother was like her full-time job.

 

2. I didn’t eat until she had fed me with her own hands because that was the time with her that was completely mine

I never thought about if she had had dinner or not, had she even had the time to think about food? But she’d always come back running and make me eat first and then only touch her own food.

 

3. She had to wake up super early to get herself ready, so that she has enough time to get me dressed up for school

How many times have I cared if my mother got enough sleep? Have I ever realised how she woke me up and catered to all my tantrums?

 

4. I used to play outside every day and return home with scraps and cuts on my body, but I defiantly refused to go to the doctor without her

My dogged insistence on going to the doctor only with mumma was my way of telling everyone that only my mom is the one who can heal me, better than the medicines. The medicines worked better when she lovingly egged me on to take them.

 

5. I always needed my very own magician’s help, whose sharp eyes would find anything I want from the gigantic mess I created

I always created a notoriously gigantic mess every time mom wasn’t around and when I couldn’t find something ranging from useless to super important, she’d always find the needle in the haystack. Even over skype!

 

6. She understood when I told her I was too busy to talk, but was always ready to listen to me whenever I needed her

She always had time for me. Whether she had a heavy workload or an urgent meeting. She always had time for me.

 

7. When she’d go away for days together, I used to pull out one of her sarees that smelt like her and wrap it around me. It helped put myself to sleep because I missed her so much

As the progeny of an independent woman who had an identity beyond being my mother, I learnt to wait for her and yet she’d still try her best to be there whenever I needed her with absolutely no complaints.

It took me time to understand how much her heart must have broken while being away from me, how much she needed to be with us, and how much she has sacrificed for us as a working professional, as an individual, and as a woman.

This Mother’s Day let’s applaud our wonderful moms through this campaign #MomsAlwaysOnTime by Vistara. A campaign that celebrates the joy of bringing moms home just in time for every special moment in their kids’ lives.

For when it comes to Moms, every day is Mother’s Day and every day is a commitment to bringing them home on time.

---

This story is brought to you in association with Vistara.