22/06/2021
This post truly sums it up.
With the recent resurgence of illnesses in the community, we feel for our Families as they navigate working and home life with sick children.
The team at Mulberry Cottage are always doing everything in our power to prevent the spread of illness and bacteria throughout the Centre.
It's important that everyone in the community does too!
T H A T // first year of daycare.
The year of immunity building for the babe and resentment for the working parent.
It’s the pits. For everyone.
It’s the struggles and the sickness.
The unattainable health that dangles in front of you, always just out of reach.
The sleepless nights, high temps and teething.
The HF&M, the gastro, the coughs and colds and dreaded nits.
It’s the relief of finally getting over one thing, only to catch the next.
It’s the insurmountable loads of washing, the smell of Glen 20 and the steamy bathrooms.
The lack of personal space, the feeling of helplessness and the overwhelming exhaustion.
It’s a never ending, unforgiving, relentless cycle.
They catch it all.
Then they share it all.
And just to ice the cake, once you’re done keeping them all alive, you go down and go down hard.
But to really make life a tortuous battle, that first year of daycare is also your first year back at work.
It’s the real and constant conflict of trying to navigate how to do your job like you always did but also now be a mum to your babe that seems to always be sick.
The days spent trying to function at work on barely any sleep, the leaving early once again and the paper, rock and sc******ng with your partner to see who’s going to take yet another day off.
The internal battle between heart and head. Knowing the only place you need to be is at home with them but still mentally sorting, prioritising and negotiating your work load in the background.
It’s the pile of work left in your wake, the feeling of letting your team down and the guilt that feels heavy and regretful.
The dread of seeing the daycare number pop up on your phone and the repetitive ‘I’m sorry I have to go’ apologies.
That first year of daycare [and the successive years that follow] are some of the hardest and most draining a working parent will endure. The expectation that you can do it all is exhausting and unrealistic, especially with daycare germ sharing.
That first of daycare is hard.
It’s simply survival.
Everything else can wait.
