A babbling baby in the left arm, the right arm free for every other task in the world is how almost every new mother looks like. Slowly and surely she realizes that she just enrolled herself into the biggest on-the-job training program. She feels a little shaky now, as this much-coveted role of a lifetime does not come with a formal induction program.
Does the realization sink in immediately after giving birth? Nope, for on the first day after giving birth, she is full to the brim with a divine satisfaction. It is from the second day onward that she finally realizes that her life as she knew it has completely changed. If she is a first-time mother, day two is the BIG day for her. The baby refuses to sleep. If she is fortunate to be blessed with a good support system, things turn out to be relatively smooth for her. So, the baby is exchanged back and forth between the mother and the care-giver— most likely her own mother in Asian Settings, or a husband in the Western world. By day three, being sleep-deprived, she is utterly exhausted. Yet she feels grateful like she never has been in her life to anyone or anything for the love and support that is keeping her boat afloat.
Most mothers find the first two months excruciatingly tiring as the baby wakes up almost every hour or two for its feeding. Every reliable health care web site advises her to sleep whenever the baby sleeps. Now the thing about sleep is: it refuses to come when it is most welcome.
Days roll to months, and months to years. The munchkin is a year old now. She wonders, “Where did all the time go?”She becomes nostalgic and starts counting the days backward to the day when she first held her son in her arms. All that she remembers from the year that went by are the no bounds, contagious laughter sessions with her son, the bewilderment in his eyes upon watching the first rain, the way his face lit up each time she returned after the shortest of the trips to the kitchen or the bathroom, and the assured look on his face whenever his mother was around. When her friends remark that this is the job of a lifetime with no assured retirement benefits, she smiles and says nothing; she knows that the daily intangible dividends that she reaped are enough to last her a lifetime.
Write Left Right 