Perks and privileges of being a millennial mom
Iam a millennial. I was born when the world was in a phase witnessing the turn of the millennium. To add to this information, I am now a mother, too. But being a millennial mother brings connotations of quite diverse colours to the forefront.
Being a post-graduate in English literature, you can imagine the dollops of feminism and Marxism oozing out in the conversations I’m part of. Terms such as equality, freedom, tolerance and breaking patriarchal shackles are part of my go-to diction.
In 2021, I gave birth to a baby, a girl child, and while I was bound to my bed for almost a month due to Caesarean surgery, I had an epiphanic moment. It was an epiphany regarding parenthood about to roll out its wings and take my husband and me to a flight unprecedented in nature.
So, I charted out a check list. I resolved to practice gender-neutral parenting, saying no to traditions (read, superstitions) related to babies and maintaining my own space. At present, the aim of my life is to keep the baby oblivious to screens of all shapes and sizes and to learn how to cook.
You know how dubious today’s readyto-eat and pretentious healthy food is for the well-being of your child as well as your budget. I can sense cynics scoffing at a mother struggling to make the right food. There are more who may turn
I RESOLVED TO PRACTICE GENDER-NEUTRAL PARENTING, SAYING NO TO TRADITIONS RELATED TO BABIES. THE AIM IS TO KEEP THE BABY OBLIVIOUS TO SCREENS OF ALL SHAPES & SIZES
these scoffs into howls. Following babyled weaning is another bone of contention between me and the people complaining how ‘pushy’ I am in making my tot eat on her own so early.
Furthermore, literature has helped me condemn the apotheosis of mother figure because in hindsight, things are not much sacred and sacrosanct as they should be. It is the opposite of Kareena Kapoor Khan’s glamorous mommy looks. It may take eons to get into shape with the pace and the elan with which Anushka Sharma had and definitely without the hotness Lisa Haydon donned. You see how millennials keep such celebs in the proximity, thanks to the tight grip and addiction Instagram has on us.
With a newborn comes a package of sleep-deprived nights, nursing struggles, worsening mental health, so on and so forth. That’s why I prefer saying parents to mother and father. It eases the burden often aimed at the woman. The term parent sounds like an equaliser. In my home, if my husband is the parent who cooks, I’m the one who feeds, reads, coos, etc.
You realise how incentivising being a millennial is to new parents. Amid the colossal parenting trials and tribulations, you learn not to take your health for granted, be thoughtful about maintaining your own cocoon and stop giving two hoots about gendered conventions weighing the banner of selflove down. However, millennial mother is just a cute example of an alliteration I couldn’t avoid.