Dear Exhausted Mom, I See You, I Hear You, I Know You

To the mother of two who says "I'm tired" every time I meet you. I see you. I hear you. I know you.

I know what it is like to feel so tired, it is beyond comprehension. What it means to try to go about your day like it is normal, when it is far from normal. I know what it means to miss your 10-hour sleep nights. I know how you feel on most mornings.

To the mother who does it all—hats off to you. I know how hard it is to get a moment for yourself. To eat. To bathe. To just be.

To the mother who eats last, or misses dinner because she is too busy feeding little mouths... I see you. I hear you. I know you.

I know how hard it is to hold on to a routine just to keep your family together, yet wait for a moment to break from the routine and breathe.

There will be days when you wonder what you got yourself into. And there will be days you would do anything to rewind, undo and redo. There will be days you make mistakes. And days you won't. Be kind to yourself, dear mama. Don't forget, you are human too.

On days like that, I want you to remember how you felt the moment you saw your baby. How your world became just that baby. And nothing else mattered. Maybe it was that moment, maybe it was a series of moments a few months later. But remember how that poop-making machine brightened up your world.

Remember those toothless smiles that you could never get enough of. Or those tight hugs that only babies know how to give right. Or the warmth of their laughter, that you hear so often that you sometimes take it for granted. Or you simply forget to remember.

To the mother who eats last, or misses dinner because she is too busy feeding little mouths. Or because she fell asleep while putting her baby to sleep, oblivious to the rumbling of her tummy. I see you. I hear you. I know you.

Please remember now that although mealtime is not as peaceful and planned as before, the voices that fill your room make your life more vibrant and colourful than ever before. Remember, when they spit out their food and you haven't even eaten a meal yourself for hours that they are testing new-found boundaries, and have only begun learning right from wrong. They are too little and too playful to understand why it is so important to you for them to eat their meals. They don't understand what underweight means. They have so much to learn, be patient with them. Remember how little they are and how little they know.

I know how much your arms ache from carrying them. And I know that you sometimes don't notice the pain because you'd rather have them close to you...

To the mother who wakes up her baby so that they won't be late to pick up their brothers or sisters from school—I see you, I hear you, I know you.

I know how you struggle to take them everywhere you go. I know how much your arms ache from carrying them. And I know that you sometimes don't notice the pain because you'd rather have them close to you than away.

To the mother who wants her kid to stop growing up so she can enjoy their childhood with them a little more, yet has days when she wishes they'd grow up faster because they get into trouble too often. Or the mother who wants to exercise and get into shape but can't move because her body is so tired after running behind her kids—I see you, I hear you, I know you.

While we all take different journeys through motherhood—some as stay-at-home moms, others as working professionals, some as single parents, others with joint families. The feelings are the same—they are universal.

Like Elvis may have put it, it's a crazy little thing called mom!

Shah Rukh Khan's Most Iconic Scenes

Shah Rukh Khan's Most Iconic Scenes

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