The superwoman
I have always been consumed and, in fact, fascinated by the idea of women having to be perfect in everything. Be it cooking, cleaning, driving, gardening, drawing, singing, parenting, working at the office, etc and etc. We women are supposedly preprogrammed with the chip of multitasking.
Are we?
I doubt.
From my personal 30 yr long experience, I think men and women aren’t different at all. It is we the society who impose the difference. Don’t we?
Women can toil at the office all day, get tired, and call it a day, which some menfolk have been doing for ages.
I have been seeing a particular ad where a father comes to visit his married daughter. He’s observing her when she gets back from work. She shuffles between getting her father his tickets, her son, her husband’s dinner, groceries, an office phone call and of course laundry (which the ad was about :P). The father only then realises that he too has been sitting back when the lady of his house toils around.
It is guilt.
We feel guilty instead of being content with whatever our life plans are.
Well, after seeing a life changing movie, I decided to make drastic changes, not to my work, but to my guilt mode.
I changed my thinking.
It is totally ok for dishes to remain dirty for a day. Laundry to wait for sometime.
It is totally ok to strike the “right” balance. “Right” being a little less of work and family. Not fully.
It is totally ok to ask for help from someone to “share the load”.
It is totally ok to be at home and take care of the house and the family. It is not taboo but a personal decision.
It is also totally ok to go to work full day and come back home, having to do nothing but chill and sleep.
For the future generations, I think it is our responsibility.
I am going to teach my daughter cooking and cleaning only because she can be independent in her life, not for being the perfect wife.
I will also teach her that it is perfectly ok not to be perfect in everything.
Are we?
I doubt.
From my personal 30 yr long experience, I think men and women aren’t different at all. It is we the society who impose the difference. Don’t we?
Women can toil at the office all day, get tired, and call it a day, which some menfolk have been doing for ages.
I have been seeing a particular ad where a father comes to visit his married daughter. He’s observing her when she gets back from work. She shuffles between getting her father his tickets, her son, her husband’s dinner, groceries, an office phone call and of course laundry (which the ad was about :P). The father only then realises that he too has been sitting back when the lady of his house toils around.
Well, it got me thinking. Why do we women want to do it all?
Why do we want to work so hard that people would say, “ I don’t know how she does it?”?
I finally found the answer. It is guilt.
We feel guilty instead of being content with whatever our life plans are.
We feel guilty of having to prioritise work over family. Or we feel guilty of not being able to do justice to our talent, by being “just a homemaker” (really?) and being judged by people around.
Well, after seeing a life changing movie, I decided to make drastic changes, not to my work, but to my guilt mode.
I changed my thinking.
It is totally ok for dishes to remain dirty for a day. Laundry to wait for sometime.
It is totally ok to strike the “right” balance. “Right” being a little less of work and family. Not fully.
It is totally ok to ask for help from someone to “share the load”.
It is totally ok to be at home and take care of the house and the family. It is not taboo but a personal decision.
It is also totally ok to go to work full day and come back home, having to do nothing but chill and sleep.
For the future generations, I think it is our responsibility.
I am going to teach my daughter cooking and cleaning only because she can be independent in her life, not for being the perfect wife.
I will also teach her that it is perfectly ok not to be perfect in everything.
And that women needn’t be superwomen after all.
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