If My 5 yo. Daughter Understands I Am Not A Superwoman, Why Doesn’t My Family?

My daughter's response to why she wanted to help me stumped me. She said, 'Because my mother is not a superwoman! She is my mom only!'

My daughter’s response to why she wanted to help me stumped me. She said, ‘Because my mother is not a superwoman! She is my mom only!’

A while ago, my daughter came to me and said, ‘Hey, mom! What are you doing? I want to play with you. Please, let’s play some game today.’

‘No Akshara. I don’t have any time today, you know your bua is coming with her whole family. So please, don’t disturb me,’ I told her.

‘Okay, mamma.’ And a few moments later, she came back to me and said, ‘Mamma, you have lots of work. I think you are tired. If you don’t mind, can I help you?’

I just looked at her and smiled, ‘Oh my little princess! How can you help me?’

Why did my 5-year-old understand that?

Innocently, she said, ‘Don’t worry. I can do everything, you just have to instruct me.’

‘But why do you want to help me?’ I asked her.

Her reply stumped me, ‘Because my mother is not a superwoman! She is my mom only!’

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This is Akshara, my five-year-old daughter who is enjoying her vacation at home. She is an only child and thus wants to play with her mother. My daughter is the only one who understands that I am not a Superwoman because no one offers to help me. They all think I can do all the work on my own or rather, that it is only my work.

Why is it only my responsibility?

But before going on, let me introduce myself. I am Sita and I live in a joint family. The head of our family is my MIL Kamla Ji and my husband, Sanjay is her eldest son. I’ve got two younger brothers-in-law – Ajay and Vijay who are still in college. And I also have a married sister-in-law who stays in the same city as us.

No one helps me with household chores. According to my MIL, it is my duty and my duty alone. I have to start my day at 5 AM and end it at midnight. Though I often get tired of doing everything on my own, no one understands this. My MIL often says, ‘Humare ghar mein kaam hi kitna hai!’ (There isn’t so much work in the house.) But I’ve never answered back to her since I also believed I was a Superwoman.

However, my daughter taught me that I was wrong. Today, I realised that I am a regular human who gets tired too! So I have decided not to be a Superwoman but to take help from my family. Will they help me?

Do you also think you’re a Superwoman?

Picture credits: Still from Bollywood movie Kahaani 2

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