MY son recently turned a year older. It reminded me of the years most parents have been through.
The first month after birth is challenging for working parents. Breastfeeding or bottle feeding will wake you up almost every two hours. Who can sleep when the life beside you cries his heart out for food? The need for milk stretches from two hours to three, four, and so on. By the time you go back to work, it will have improved. Still, you only get a few winks before working the next day. Yet, you work as if you've had an eight-hour sleep.
For working mothers, have you had that experience of “milk calling” while on a client call or on your way to a client? Well, let's have a high-five on that.
Barely a month after giving birth, I attended a company event in the morning that stretched till night. We had to join the guest speaker, who loved ballroom dancing. My friend Jovi couldn't help but laugh because I was dancing as if I didn't recently give birth. She kidded the dance instructor to go easy with the dance steps “kay basin manga bugto nang iyang tahi.”
Working parents can relate to missed school affairs or just getting in the nick of time. Either you’re out of town for meetings or training, or you can’t take a day off from work. During field demonstrations or school programs, one can relate to the times when your child looks for you in a sea of faces and smiles as he makes eye contact with you. It’s priceless and worth the rush.
I once worked in a bank with a location across the bridge from where I used to live and from where my son used to study. Due to distance and traffic congestion, it pays to have a carpool or parents willing to bring your child home.
Thanks to my Kumareng Bebot for taking my son home because she saw him waiting when almost everybody had gone home.
Parenthood is not limited to one who gives birth. You can be a parent to your nieces and nephews or godchildren. At times when you have to take your child to work, officemates become extension parents.
It’s also a godsend when the neighborhood bookstore allows your child to read books for free. My son loves to read. He even volunteered for me to join a storytelling activity. I read his favorite book in front of his classmates. Good thing a company workshop on storytelling just concluded. We learned how to read stories to children with animation, i.e., the sounds, and movements of animals, the sounds of thunder, lightning, and more. It was part of our company’s Corporate Social Responsibility wherein we read to children.
As years pass and your child begins to understand why you need to work, you will be amazed at how he explains to his teacher why you won't be able to come or will be late.
Parenthood is a never-ending journey. My son is now 26, yet, I still feel like it was just yesterday when he attended his first class.
