Where is my village?
It takes a village to raise a child, but I've been doing it all on my own. Every day since my husband returned to work after his 2 weeks paternity leave, I've been on my own taking care of my newborn. My in-laws live in the east while I live in the west, so I don't expect them to help. Meanwhile, my family lives just 10 minutes away. Despite that, none of them have come to help me unless I ask for help (and it's hard for me to ask). My mum has previously agreed to look after baby once I return to work, but she hasn't put in any effort to help or learn how my baby wants to be taken care of. When I do ask her to come and help, she isn't proactive and seems reluctant. She then gets tired from helping so proceeds to leave my house after about 4 hours. Seeing this, my husband and I have applied for infant care so my mum wouldn't have to take care of baby once I go back to work. I still have a few months of maternity leave left. All these while, I've been doing everything on my own without any/much help from my family. My friends are all childless so I have been left behind from outings a few times too. My family and friends don't check up on me and it makes me sad. When they see me, all they are interested in is the baby. It makes me feel so invisible... My husband tries his best to help once he comes home from work, but I can tell that he's tired so I end up doing most things anyway. My situation has made me so depressed and I feel so sad and lonely. I know things will get better once baby goes for infant care, but it won't take away the fact that no one has been here for me during these difficult days. My heart is broken and it's more painful than any physical exhaustion. Sigh 😔 Ok thank you for listening to my rant if you made it to the end. Have you ever felt the same?
