Last week, Nicki Gilbert wrote a piece for Kveller about the guilt she experienced on an unusual, unscheduled weekday morning when she wasn’t otherwise running between errands, appointments, and volunteer activities. She toyed with a list of ideas she could do on this rare occasion when she found a few hours for herself. Burdened with what she described as stay-at-home-mom guilt, she quickly dismissed “decadent” options including napping, watching TV, and going to the movies. Eventually, she hinted at the idea that she would overcome the guilt and spend a few hours on the sunny, California beach.
I read her article, hunched over my iPhone, sitting in my five-day-a-week office, while dropping crumbs from lunch all over my desk. And I’ll admit it – I felt a little rage-y. The very idea that another mom was headed to frolic on the warm sand while I toiled away in sub-zero temperatures, warmed only by the corporate-monitored heating system and whatever sweat I worked up while walking down to the cafeteria, made the hairs on my arm stand on edge.
In justifying her trip to the beach, Nicki referenced the fact that even working people have “downtime, room to breathe and think.” My (admittedly) snarky gut reaction was that if I had to choose between downtime that included a dip in the Pacific and the downtime I experience at work when I have enough time between conference calls to use the restroom, I knew which one I’d select.
But immediately after the frustration flashed, I caught myself: Where was this coming from? I had never once been a perpetrator in the stay-at-home vs. working-mom battle...
This article was first published on Kveller.com and appears here with permission. See here for the full article.
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