Chronicle Editor
Andile Tshuma
Imagine working from home and reporting to your boss every three hours.
Because you are working from home, you have to home school a Grade Seven, a Grade Two and also attend to the day care needs of your two-year-old.
Just like you, they are all home because of the lockdown, and working from home does not mean you are exempted from the home duties during your ‘working hours”.
That’s the typical new normal of a working mum.
There is so much unpaid care work that is not being factored in, and it takes a lot of time and energy, resulting in a lot of women suffering from burnout.
These women, bless them.
They have so much on their hands at the moment yet they continue to keep the world moving.
Some are blessed, they have present, helpful partners who really help out and try to make their presence felt if they are also working from home.
But to be honest, it’s just never really the same. Maybe it’s because of upbringing or socialisation, or the maternal instinct, or whatever it is, however the fact that household duties in most households just weigh on the female figure of that household.
Everyone else seems to be just ‘helping’ and the woman has to figure out the rest.
Well, then they have to occasionally deal with that member of the family who will sing for the whole year for just one evening he is spotted doing the dishes by the sink, or the morning he boils eggs for everyone.
He goes around singing how much of a helpful partner he is and how he does chores around the house. Oh, and also counting that one or two days in a month when he decided to make the bed. You will never hear the end of it.
I think it should not be celebrated and must not be an event worth noting when a grown man helps with household chores in his own home.
It should be a given that he also earns his membership of that household by also contributing to making it beautiful, clean and tidy, or just habitable.
To all the men that are doing right by their partners and are indeed present full-time in helping around the home, you are appreciated, you are not doing anything special or out of this world, you are just doing the right thing, the sensible thing that any grown up should be doing. But because there’s so few of you, thumbs up and keep on keeping on.
The Covid-19 situation is raising superwomen in these homes.
Women are suffering from burnout. Being at home and at work at the same time is really draining.
When you are at your conventional workplace, at the office or at the school where you teach or wherever, it is easier to shut out thoughts of home and the pending tasks t
However, just because you are working from home, so many things are so vividly staring right in your face and cannot be ignored. So you have to somehow act on them, even if you are supposed to be at work, you are home after all.
So you would find that in-between doing your accounting job that you are paid for, you are taking 15 minute breaks to look at children’s schoolwork, attend Google classroom with the pupils in your house, you also have to ensure that those little people are fed and that they are not watching too much TV.
You also have to take 30 minute breaks once in a while to prepare meals, you need the breaks to also do a bit of laundry, your floors could look better with a wet mop over them, and the dishes are piling up in the sink. There’s a foul smell coming from the fridge, it’s leftovers going bad, and then there are audit reports due in two hours. Yet, there’s only one of you. So all these things are piling up.
You are the iron lady in the office, they know that if there is one person who can focus and get things done, it’s you. They also know you for being the definition of working under pressure, but this whole set up is just new. There’s just so much to do and so little time. You are slacking of late and tasks are taking longer to complete, your boss or your team isn’t amused, but they do not seem to understand that being home is a whole lot different.
People keep talking about the comfort of working from home and saving time wasted in commuting to work and all, but they do not know that being home means that you have to be mum full time and that is a job on its own.
Bless these working mums, it’s a lot of work that they are putting in.
And because the usually reliable day care centres are closed, some of these working mums do not have helpers at home because children would have been at day care during working hours, or school, so it was a manageable routine.
Right now, day care centres are closed, everyone is at home. It’s just not the same.
If there are no interventions, women could suffer from fatigue, severe burnout, stress and depression. It’s like being on a treadmill for hours on end, involuntarily.
If not treated, this could lead to mental health problems, so household members must all try and ensure that the women in our lives, superwomen as they are, get all the support they need and that the household labour does not only fall on their hands but is distributed across all the household members.
Cheers to women, stay safe, stay winning and hold on, better days are just ahead, with the vaccination roll out that is currently ongoing, there is hope that soon we shall return to the normal life, and we will all get to exhale. People have been holding their breath for too long, a letting go moment is really needed. — @andile_tshuma
Online Reporter