Thursday 14 July 2011

Depriving my children of Happy childhood!

I am a working mother and I go through this odd feeling quite so often! I have always wondered and queried myself, as to whether I should quit working and stay at home to take care of the kids. But  the feeling comes and goes-like it has not really stayed in my mind for long. It happens that the occurence of the feeling is during times when both parents are not able to give quality time for kids- when kids are more dependent on domestic helpers than the parents, when in their routine they spend more time with the maids than with the parents, when during day they are hooked on to the TV than having parents around to talk to and spent time with.

All these things that I had just mentioned happens in my house more so often. Because of which I tend to be swimming in a pool of guilt every now and then. At these times, some one I may speak to gives me justification that its OK for me to go to work, because ultimately it is for the kids future. We want to see them enjoy all good, provide the best education etc etc and the list of justification goes on. So back to square one, there I am back with my routine work schedule, and that is again away from kids for most of the time.

Being in a foreign country, all by your self(I mean, just the family), without much help, we are forced to be dependent on the maid. Trusting our kids with the maid, especially children is a big challenge. When we happen to get a maid who can be trusted, major part of the challenge has been crossed. But there remains one aspect that is compromised here. Whatever role genetics plays in getting our children to take up characteistics of their parents, there is still the undeniable truth that their upbringing is more influenced by the maids. Willingly I have compromised on that issue all these days, now I think the realisation is surfacing, because of which I think and rethink whether I should quit my job. It might look like a small decision. But I think parents going through the same situation like us, will understand what I feel like!