Written by: Shereen Gaber
It goes without saying that being a mom is a tremendously difficult job. When our parents tell us that we won’t know what it’s like until we have kids of our own, they’re actually not just saying that but it’s a simple truth.
Whether it’s being a stay at home mom or a working mom, both lifestyles are hectic and require quite a lot of effort. Not only that, each child has a personality of their own so one mom could be blessed with a quiet and calm child, another might be blessed with a little Energizer bunny (which is my case a lot of the times).
Only a few days into Ramadan and I’m already beyond exhausted. Even if I sleep in, my 3 year old daughter won’t let me have much peace and will wake me up. And of course I have to get up and make her breakfast. You’d think that this will be the end of it if she can just go on and play with her toys, but no. Besides the multiple trips to the bathroom, she also needs me to focus with her on her toys and games. On normal days, this would be fine, but not during Ramadan. Before becoming a mom, I’d sleep in and only wait a few hours before Iftar, and I can enjoy these few hours doing absolutely nothing. But now, I have to cook multiple times a day for her which is sometimes torture while fasting. The first day, I actually ate some macaroni to make sure it was soft enough for her and totally forgot I was fasting. Happens to the best of us, I know.
Now if you’re a working mom, the process of the day becomes entirely different. You have to wake up at 7 in the morning AND wake up your kid. Waking up a sleepy toddler is not a fun task. You have to be really careful because you’re pretty much dealing with a ticking time bomb at this point. Then I have to feed her, dress her and at the same time get myself ready. So instead of needing 30 minutes to get ready in the morning, now I need 120. Not what you’d be aiming for during Ramadan. Then there’s the dropping her off at her nursery and going to work. After finishing your typical work day, you’ll need to go pick her up and go home, and do everything I mentioned earlier plus getting Iftar ready for the rest of the family.
And don’t get me started on house chores. It gets to the point where I just think, as long as my husband and daughter have something to wear tomorrow, I am NOT doing the laundry. Even if it piles up, I don’t care because, priorities. I need a break and I’ll snap if anyone asks me to do anything else.
