Mums don’t need reminding that managing work and kids and life is general is hard work. It’s a constant juggling act. But we don’t ask for thanks, or acknowledgement. Because that’s just the way life is; hectic.
Of course if we do get some acknowledgement for how hard mum life can be it’s always welcome.
This was the case for one U.S. mum who left her hubby in charge of their four kids recently while she headed off for a work conference.
Joanna Venditti shared with Babycentre that it was a steep learning curve for her husband, who stayed home to care for their kids aged six, four, and their one-year-old twins.
He very quickly learned how challenging and frantic life Joanna’s life must be as a working mother “in the trenches”.
The stressed-out dad sent his wife a very honest text, confessing that he was finding it hard coping with their four kids.
“How the f$&@ do you do this? I am loosing [sic] my mind and my soul is defeated,” he said.
Although empathetic, Joanna was quietly pleased with this desperate message from her hubby. “Part of me chuckled, and relished in the fact that he was finally experiencing my reality,” she wrote.
But it was his follow-up text that meant the most to Joanna, as her husband was able to acknowledge her vital role in the family, and that her efforts don’t go unnoticed.
“Not that I ever thought that I could do this on my own or that I didn’t need you or you didn’t need me, but I know that I need you and we need each other to run this house and this family,” Joanna’s husband wrote.
“There is a lot to look after and a lot to do for one person, but aside from that, there are just things that I do not have in my dna to share with the kids when they need it and the reverse is probably true as well.”
“I just had that thought that I/we need to be a team, a complementary team to run this house right and raise these 4 amazing children right. Love you.”
Now that’s a winning text message if ever we read one and Joanna was the first to agree.
“This text, no, this love letter, said to me everything that I needed to hear,” she wrote on her Babycenter blog.
“That I was appreciated, that I was doing a great job, and that instead of playing the ‘who has it harder game’ that we should get on the same page and be a team.”
Raising a family as a modern woman can feel impossible some days, but when you’ve got a partner to support you and give you a pat on the back every now and then, it goes a long way.
It sounds like Joanna’s husband sending that text earned him some serious brownie points. Because mums today don’t want Shakespearean sonnets or hand-written love letters, but a thoughtful text from our co-parent says a lot.
