Yes I am a working mom! Get over it!

"You must be brave to do, what you are doing?", she asked with a smile. Was she questioning me or herself? I don't know why, but a surge of anger burst forth, and said, "Brave why brave, you are here in office, aren't you, and your little girl is at home na?" Why all the angst, you may wonder? Every now and then I am asked whether my decision to work, after becoming an Amma of a little girl, was a wise move? Sometimes working moms ask me this. I mean why all the "hoo, haa"!! Everywhere across the world, scores of women work and identify themselves as FULL-TIME Ammas as well. The question was posed by a fellow colleague, a working Amma herself!

But the question and my reaction to it, made me sort of introspect and look within. Why was I angry? Was I still a victim to the guilt of not being around my little baby girl? Was I being too ambitious and not doing the right thing by staying away from my daughter? Recently I joined a well-known non-profit organization and we work in the Child Rights space, and it opened a whole new world to me, in terms of understanding concepts connected to children and I realized that as a mother and a provider I am doing all that I can to protect and ensure that my child has a happy, healthy and creative childhood. So what that I am away from her around 8-9 hours away, the rest of my time is hers. I am not saying work-life balance as they call it in the corporate world is an easy thing to achieve, the struggle is always there. I am just about coming around to having no regrets to choosing to work. Like all working Ammas, I too miss the time to linger and just be around my child for more time, just like my colleague, I assume. So the next time I was asked this question, I simply shrugged and said, "Yes I am a working Amma, get over it."