Different parenting styles can lead to the same underlying pressure, highlighting the unspoken guilt many modern mothers face.
Both working and stay-at-home mothers carry the same invisible emotional burdens. Motherhood should never erase the ambitions of any mother. Instead, it should contribute to reshaping those ambitions, while also cultivating patience and emotional resilience.
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Motherhood is often framed as a choice between two opposing paths. The decision to return to work or stay at home comes with emotional costs that often go unrecognised.
Mothers may experience guilt or a sense of abandoning their children, regardless of the choice they make. No matter which path a mother chooses, these invisible burdens are always present.
For a stay-at-home mother, guilt can take the form of missing out on life. Even though their days are filled with caregiving, moms quietly carry the sense that the professional world is moving forward without them.
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To the outside world, working mothers may be carrying a different burden, one that is invisible but equally there. Working mothers’ guilt may come from the absence in their children’s lives. From missing their kids’ firsts, to arriving after bedtime, or feeling torn between professional and motherly responsibilities.
According to The Boston Globe, this internal battle with burden has now shaped the unspoken expectations that society puts on mothers. Somehow, the belief is that for one to be a good mother, they should be fully present everywhere, at all times. However, mothers should accept that they cannot do everything and that it is okay to choose whatever path they decide on. That alone doesn’t mean they are bad mothers.
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Feature Image: Gettys
