The Working Mother’s Dilemma: Homework, Guilt, and the Corporate Return

The greatest anxiety about returning to the office for me is my son and his unending school homework. Who is going to wander around the streets of Srinagar Colony searching for the right-sized leaf for him to colour on and then stick inside his Joyful Maths textbook if I am sitting in an office at 4 PM? Who is going to make sure that he studies for his pen-and-paper test the next day if I am not around when he is back from school? Cue the sad sniffs now. 

For me, this is like cutting the umbilical cord all over again. Choosing the office over home means choosing work over school. A part of me says I am a bad mother, and another part says the school books and the school came into the picture in the first place only because of work, so please go to work. It is a hard juggle—motherhood versus my career—and I am sure all mothers will quickly nod along when I say the guilt is a bottomless pit. 

We always wonder whether we are doing enough for our little ones to succeed at school. Did he get a C this time because I had to step into the office? Would he have gotten an A instead had I been at home? Then I think about his priorities in life: Minecraft blocks and T-shirts, playzones, and Skechers light-up shoes. Yes, those things could definitely not have been procured by him had he not cunningly brainwashed me and had I not been working. 

Still, I am conflicted. Why should working parents ever have to choose between growing careers and growing children? It is just not fair. Conflicted parent out. Cue one dozen plus sad sighs now.