#BalanceforBetter
Reena was in an office meeting. Her husband Mahesh was supposed to pickup kids from daycare that day.
Suddenly her phone vibrated , "Mahesh calling" it was.
She cut the call .
"Please chat" , she whatsapped him.
" Can you please leave early and pickup Sia from daycare?" he whatsapped.
This had happened many times before. Sometimes when it was his turn of picking up kids from daycare, he would be stuck in office and message Reena on similar lines
Reena was tired of all this. She was fedup of making constant adjustments to her schedule. She felt she was neither doing justice to her job or her family life. She just thought she should call it quits.
There are many such Reena's in the society.
Women who are financially independent but willing to give up that due to seemingly trivial yet constant issues like this.
Isn't the child equal responsibility of the father as well? Would he have liked if Reena asked him to pickup from daycare when it was actually Reena's turn to do so?
Men need to understand that their wife's job is as important as theirs. Many argue that the wife is not earning much hence why does she need to work. A job is not just a source of income for a woman, it is a source of dignity, financial independence and a lot more.
Also what can we as a society do to prevent such Reena's from giving up?
Obviously systems, infrastructure etc can improve. Those are long term solutions.
In the short term, you can if possible
- Offer to pickup a friends kid if she needs help
- Offer to babysit a neighbour's kid for a couple of hours
- Connect friends to any parenting groups that they can derive support from
These are just some of the ways we can help mothers when they are stuck in situations. These are not permanent or scalable solutions. But they offer a lot of hope and a fallback option to mothers. That there is someone to depend on, even if it is for a few occasions gives a lot of courage.
And yes last but not the least, we can raise our sons better and educate them that men and women are equal.
Change begins at home..Ask the men to #sharetheload .#balanceforbetter starts by helping women balance their career and family.
This is the month of Woman's day. On this month lets make a pledge for #balanceforbetter by striving to help women in whatever way we can.
-Dhanashree
- #balanceforbetter #sharetheload #womensday #internationalwomensday
