It’s difficult to be a working mom because society expects you to be able to balance staying on top of your career and raising the kids, while you struggle with your guilt of missing milestones and lack of quality time with your children. But moms are a different breed of tough — even when faced with challenges, they will still show up and get the job done.
That’s what Roxane Geronimo-Manguera, a 29-year-old teacher from Tarlac realized when she faced a working mom dilemma one Monday morning: she needed to go to school but her mother-in-law, who usually looks after her 2-year-old daughter, Atarah, had to attend to an emergency and could not bring her granddaughter with her. Her husband, Mar Chan, who is also a teacher, would also not be able to miss a day of class.
Now, Roxane could have filed a leave so she could watch over her daughter, and just go online to assign her students their seatwork, but this mom couldn’t bear to disappoint her students. That’s when she decided to just bring her toddler to school so she could carry on with her lessons for the day.
Roxane with her 2-year-old daughter, Atarah.PHOTO BY courtesy of Roxane Geronimo-MangueraADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOWSpeaking to SmartParenting.com.ph, Roxane shares that her students were initially surprised to see their teacher arriving in class with a kid. “But when I told them that I had to bring her with me to school instead of being absent, they were sympathetic,” she shares.
While Roxane would have preferred that Atarah sits with her students, the little girl was overwhelmed seeing unfamiliar faces and clung to mommy. Again, the first-time mom handled it with grace — she was able to finish teaching her class while carrying her toddler. Thankfully, there was a school activity scheduled for that day, so she only had to teach one period.
“For working moms (and dads, too), it is so frustrating to think about who’d take care of the baby,” Roxane writes in a Facebook post detailing her experience. “I thank God for helping me [and my baby] survive this day! I hope this long post will serve as an inspiration [for] many working moms. It takes a village to raise a child, but may we never lose hope and still be happy and positive even when we are down in the dumps!”
Atarah was painfully shy and had her eyes closed while mommy was teaching her lesson.PHOTO BY courtesy of Roxane Geronimo-MangueraCONTINUE READING BELOWRecommended VideosRoxane says she thought of sharing her experience on social media because she wanted working moms “to never feel bad if they could not perform well in a particular task.” And she’s happy that a lot of moms reached out in the comments to share that they were going through the same thing.
She adds, “It’s ok not to be ok, but we have to be braver and stronger to face each day.”
And while she didn’t intend it, bringing her child to school had an impact on Roxane’s students. “My students were amazed and inspired since I still got to teach them while carrying my baby,” she says. “I even jokingly told them, ‘Grabe, mahirap talaga maging isang magulang. Kaya please lang, mag-aral muna.’”
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