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22nd Mar 2016

Read One Woman’s Viral Letter To Stay-At-Home Mums That’s Causing Quite A Fuss

Not everyone found the post empowering... what do you think?

Megan Cassidy

Empowering for stay-at-home mums, or insulting to working mums? 

This is the question on a lot of lips after a mum’s open letter to stay-at-home mums went viral.

Ryshell Castleberry, a Florida-based tattoo artist penned a moving and powerful tribute to mums who don’t work, which now has more than 189,000 shares and 526,000 likes.

She opens the letter in the form of an imaginary conversation between a psychologist and a husband who claims that his wife “does not work”.

He then goes on to list the tasks that keep his wife busy every day, a list that is mountainous and seemingly never-ending.

She then moves on to comment on the imaginary conversation, writing:

I work as a wife of the home, 24 hours a day..
I am a mother,
I am a woman,
I am a daughter,
I’m the alarm clock,
I’m the cook,
I’m the maid,
I am the master,
I’m the bartender,
I’m the babysitter,
I’m a nurse,
I am a manual worker,
I’m a security officer,
I’m the advisor,
I am the comforter,
I don’t have a vacation,
I don’t have a licence for disease.
I don’t have a day off
I work day and night,
I’m on duty all the time,
I do not receive salary and…
Even so, I often hear the phrase:
” but what do you do all day?”

While the post received an overwhelmingly positive reaction, some commenters took issue with the fact that working mums were not portrayed in good light.

One user noted that working mums complete the same tasks, but with “8 hours less a day to do it all.”

Another mother named Debbie Saradin McKinney commented, “And there’s those of us who do all that AND work.”

The post comes in the wake of Today FM news reporter Susan Keogh’s fantastic response to an internet troll who chastised her for being a working mum.

There is no doubt that mother’s (and fathers of course) have to make tough choices.

What is your stance?

My wife does not workMy wife doesn't work!!!Conversation between a husband (H) and a psychologist (P):Q: what do you…

Posted by Ryshell Castleberry on Thursday, 3 March 2016