From Mother India To English Vinglish: What It Means To Be A Progressive Mother In Today’s Time?
Bollywood has time and over made movies that have changed the mental makeup of the majority of Indians and broke the stereotype of motherhood. But here’s is exactly how it is to be a modern-day mother.
Let’s face it, the most underrated and unrecognizable part of our lives which play a significant role in our day to day lives are our mothers, they work behind the screens without demanding any recognition or acknowledgment. Being a mother and following your ambitions becomes a lot challenging for the moms of today’s world. Whatever the reason is, deciding to be a working mom is to be admired and not judged or shamed.
You should let go of the guilt of not being with your child all the time. With equal educational qualifications, more and more women are stepping out of their homes and the traditional job of being a daughter-in-law/mother/wife at the same time and are joining various firms and industries and have set out of to be entrepreneurs after having all of the family-related responsibilities clouding over their heads. They have begun to join workforces. But significant problems of such working moms arrive when they have to show up to work leaving their child behind.
Even if the child is being taken care of by nannies, grandmothers or even the father of the child, the heart of these mom goes for a flip and keep asking themselves the same questions time and time again and that is whether they are doing the right thing or not. One may realize that there are certain kinds of problems that they have to tackle on a daily basis in order to maintain equilibrium between work and child care. The society demands on achieving perfections at both home and work fronts which can be very tough.
To mention a few household and workplace problems we can highlight that -
* She has to get up earlier than the rest So that she’s done with the family chores before the child gets up which results in inadequate and irregular sleep patterns.
* She has to look after the daily needs of the child and ensure that they are properly been taken care of, deal with the issues that her child is facing in day to day life at home as well as at school. In some situations, she might be fortunate enough to have the support of her spouse and family members but otherwise, she’s all on her own.
* The colleagues and boss might never care about the responsibilities of a working mom at home and expect to work and bring results.
* While meeting the deadlines of the target assigned at work, taking care of the child might take a backseat.
* They are constantly being reminded of their duties. Especially in India, girls are being brought up with mental conditioning that they are born to take care of the family and their kids later in their lives. This is a stereotype that has been prevailing in India since forever. And even today women who have a child and still desire to support the family financially have to face these tantrums from the old members of the family.
* When a child realizes the difference between his working mother and that of his friend’s mother who stays home and gives her child all the attention and fulfills the requirements, the child tends to feel jealous or the fear of missing out (FOMO). This might result in the child taking drastic steps that are considered grave given his/her age.
These are just a few of the many problems enlisted above.
Facing these ordeals while maintaining a balance between personal and professional life, the moms of today’s world have come a long way. There’s no denying that working moms are masters at multitasking. Here’s enumerated how working moms build a foundation and never stop being an inspiration for everyone who thinks of themselves as mediocre.
* They use time-saving hacks
This means that they get the most done in the least amount of time by using shortcuts and plan strategically. Use online methods of having groceries delivered at home, schedule conference calls during their commute and run quick errands. This makes them smarter than any man who does a daily 9–5 job.
* Maintaining open conversations with the manager
Being a working mom doesn’t mean that you’ll be a less productive employee. The importance of communication with your manager about your needs and how you’ll continue to do your job becomes necessary beforehand. Hopefully, the manager would understand and appreciate your transparency.
* Reduce distractions and time-wasters
Time is such an important commodity for working moms. At work, they’re very mindful of the time they are wasting in socialization with colleagues if it’s affecting their productivity. Limit long lunch breaks and surfing the internet. This helps them to get most work done in the office hours itself. Sounds smart, doesn’t it?
* When they are at home, giving all of the time to their partner and child becomes paramount rather than television or phones. They ensure that the time spent together is meaningful and affectionate.
* The working moms are very organized
They use calendars and lists and plan really ahead. They are the ones who are in charge of keeping track of doctors’ appointments, remembering birthdays, paying bills, and whatnot. Use of planners, apps and other resources to keep track of their never-ending to-do list and let go of some mental weight.
If their children are older, they teach their children simple tasks of household activities that help the children good habits, as well as the mom, gets to share the workload being absolutely non-apologetic for it.
One of the very brilliantly known fields where extensively many moms have been spotted flourishing is being a mompreneur. Businessperson or not, your view of the world is going to be from a very different lens. now when you are a mom that word takes a whole new meaning. It changes the way you look at things, how to manage your life, how you make your life decisions or even when you’re too vague at making one which makes you indecisive because there is a whole new life that is dependent completely on you.
In a male-dominated chauvinistic career field of entrepreneurship, carving your way through and reaching the other side of it, successful seems just as much impossible taking into consideration the hurdles and obstacles a mom is going to face all the way through the path of becoming a successful entrepreneur. And yet It is almost miraculous (still an understatement!) to see how passion, determination, perseverance and hard work and diligence of such moms have proven otherwise.
A Mompreneur is a neologism defined as a female business owner who actively balances the role of being a mom and the role of being an entrepreneur simultaneously. Based on the data collected and information available on the internet we can name top mompreneurs of India who have clawed their ways through the entrepreneurial firms and bloomed like crazy! Never failing to form the pillars of this nation having very little or no recognition at all.
* Dr. Rupali Ambegaonkar, 39, CEO and co-founder at tea culture
* Nidhi Batra, 31, co-founder and director, Nirvana Excursions, Mumbai
* Ambika Ankit Agarwal, 30, proprietor, A-cube project, Chennai
It’s soothing to see how moms have overcome the stereotype, the prejudice that has persisted for so long and climbing the ladder of success at a commendable pace. To support this Indian film industry has taken admirable steps so that the population of India can oversee the stereotype and actually appreciate and get inspired by these hardworking, hardcore women. Since, movies have a tremendous impact on a wide majority of the population it can be seen that families have actually started encouraging moms to step out and be themselves, be whomever they want to be. Certain Bollywood films like
* Mother India (1950) in which mother of three (played by Nargis Dutt) works really hard in the farms to bring her family out of prolonged poverty after her husband’s hands are taken away by an unfortunate, unforgettable incident. Due to the depression, the husband leaves and never returns. The mother had to gather herself together for the sake of her family and her children despite being ridiculously vulnerable, she worked and worked and provided her children with the best of opportunities.
* Paa (2009) where Vidya Balan is seen as a mother of a child with progeria.
* English Vinglish (2012) shows how Sridevi, with her sheer conviction, sets out to learn the English language by secretly joining an English speaking class in New York with the money she earned by selling laddoos in a home business. She triumphs on life subtly underlining important life lessons.
Bollywood apart from being insensible makes such movies that change the mental makeup of the majority of Indians who were predisposed to thinking like their ancestors about women being the weak gender.
Many more films like these have tried to break the stereotypes rather than conforming to the traditional notions but before that, you ought to pave through your motherhood in this metropolis.
Originally published at https://www.fuzia.com.