Mother’s guilt that never goes away

A HARASSED working mum struggles to prepare her children’s breakfast and get herself to the office.

Lost keys, a plaintive text from her teenage boy (sitting just feet away) asking to meet later, and then frenetic cross-cutting as we see how unhappy mother and son have become. Finally, a fairytale freeze frame as the mother realises her priority and runs from the office to meet her boy at the funfair. This is the tear-jerking BBC Christmas promo which has been charged with ‘guilting’ working mothers and suggesting the responsibility for parenting is solely women’s – not men’s.

As the mum of a teenage son, with a husband who is his stepfather, this could have been a morning clip from our home. I still remember my eldest child’s tears when a younger me hurriedly phoned from work to say goodnight. The school play I had to skip. Me explaining that mummy’s job buys his Lego – and him heartbreakingly packing it up to take back, so I didn’t have to work.

And, yes, the guilt of being a working mother never goes away.

But the reality of today’s world means few of us can afford to do otherwise. And most families, like the BBC’s one, just muddle along as best they can.