We are warriors.
We are women.
We are moving forward every day wiping tears and noses, making lunches, delegating, and mediating. We are endlessly feeding our families, staring at perpetual mountains of laundry, juggling at least 3 obligations at all times. We nurse, cluster feed, and pump through the night, we sit upright with sick children, we lie awake to soothe, to make worries disappear, only to quietly creep out of bed to start the day, letting our families sleep.
Some days, the alarm goes off and we think, I can’t go on. And yet from somewhere deep inside, almost innately, comes a strength that even we didn’t know we possessed. We push aside the weariness, get out of bed, and we do go on.
We are essential.
We carry life and careers simultaneously, our hearts constantly pulled in two directions. We compromise almost every part of our lives, making sacrifices, putting ourselves second. We juggle our own mental and physical health convincing ourselves that we’ll take that time for ourselves tomorrow. We go to battle for our children, we advocate for them, we worry.
Constantly we worry.
Not one of us knows all the answers, we stumble through motherhood, second-guessing and comparing ourselves. We are steady when our families are crumbling. We are hungry, but our family is fed. We move on tirelessly while are our families sleep.
Technology has allowed us to share our stories of motherhood and we know now that we are not alone. Maybe that’s where a tiny piece of our strength comes from. We are unbreakable, we are everyday superheroes. We cheer each other on from afar. Every time we think we are at our limit, we persevere. Through emotional heartbreak and loss, physical pain, utter exhaustion, relationship changes, work obligations, injustices, and inequality, women still stand.
AND
We are fragile, we do break.
We are used, pushed aside, forever taken for granted, and silenced. We are expected to carry on, unwavering for our families, but we’re tired. We are not, in fact, unbreakable. We are fading, in need of help. We’re overwhelmed, collectively drowning under the weight of unreasonable lists of duties. We are censored by a society that does not care about our pain, a society that says, congratulations! Now get back to work. We have to scream to be heard only to be called bossy, nagging, emotional, hysterical.
Our hands are full, but we are told this is normal. We stifle our opinions for the sake of the status quo. This should not be normal, we cannot be expected to care for our families at the expense of our own minds, bodies, and souls. We need to know that it’s ok to ask for help. We need to normalize NOT doing it all, normalize taking a break. We need to realize that our families need us mentally present and healthy.
We are warrior women AND warriors deserve to rest.
