Bhubaneswar: Many women today are facing choices that their mothers never had to face. They work outside the home versus working in the home. Apart from raising a child, the mother is also handling a hectic work schedule. Working mothers are considered the ‘toughest groups’ who juggle career and family life with aplomb. A mother is an institution in her own right, one who combines a successful career with effective motherhood. However, often society paints a negative picture of these mothers terming them as not sensitive towards their household responsibilities.
A working mother, especially the one who has the good fortune to be able to balance her home and work, enjoys the stimulation that a job or career provides. She develops the ability of raising a useful member of society and at the same time gains financial independence. Along with motherhood, work adds to the completeness of being a woman.
On the occasion of Mother’s Day, OrissaPOST talks to some of the City’s working mothers and tried to understand how they maintain balance between career and family.
Priyanka Singhdeo, an IT consultant said being a working mother is an incredibly rewarding but often difficult role. It can be a challenge to juggle a career and family, but it is also an experience that can bring great joy and satisfaction. She said that the life of a working mother is full of excitement, but it can also be filled with challenges. One of the greatest challenges is finding balance between work and family.
Working mothers often struggle to find enough time to spend with their children and make sure their needs are met. Especially during the times when we have to work from home and the kid is also at home due to vacations or online studies. It gets difficult to focus in one area. Additionally, working mothers sometimes have to sacrifice their own personal needs in order to make sure their family is taken care of.
Actress and producer Jhilik Bhattacharjee apart from managing her production house Jhilik Motion Pictures as well as acting is also taking care of her two babies. She said being a working mom is not easy. You have to be organized, efficient and dedicated to making it work.
As you can see, it is very much possible to balance your career and your family. After all, you are raising kids and building a thriving future for them. Excitement comes when you have a supportive partner who also joins hands with you in every situation to nurture the kids.
Anchor Riya Nanda said to be very honest a working mother tries to combine an aspiring career with effective motherhood all her life and this requires extreme effort. So she tries her level best to do justice to one without neglecting the other.
But remembering and reminding that it’s up to you and only you to rise up to everyday challenges so that it does not bring you down. While multitasking may be our watchword, we also crave some ‘metime’ while juggling between work and family.
Chairman and Principal of Mother’s Public School, Poly Patnaik said when I became a mother there was no daycare As I was working in a college it was very different to balance work and motherhood so I decided to start a daycare name Prakrit.
It gradually grew from nursery to plus II classes and today it is known as Mother’s public school. During my time, things were very different and difficult for working mothers. I started the school to help working parents so that they do not have to bother about their children during working hours.
Atashi Banerjee a school teacher said that a working mother is like goddess Maa Durga. Ten hands represent number of activities (multitasking) of working ladies.
It is not so easy to balance between the workplace and home. It takes a lot of courage, sacrifice, mental and physical exhaustion to nurture a child. A working mother has to plan all in advance.
Handloom Retailer and Crusader of Autism spectrum disorder Gargi Bhattacharya said being a mother of an adolescent with autism means overperforming at every level, be it at home or at work. It also means dealing with an extended infancy throughout one’s career, which in normal circumstances, would last four to five years of intense caregiving.
Nevertheless, this unusual mothering has helped me to develop a kind of skill set that no mentor can teach. I can proudly say that I spent a lifetime in the lap of compassion, having remained a mother to a baby, through an irregular career graph.
By Arindam Ganguly, OP
