Why I Will Never Advise Anyone To Be A Doctor Mom Again

Being a doctor mom is hard - what with erratic schedules, the stress of patients' recovery and being the 'always responsible' parent. Do you have a story to tell?

Being a doctor mom is hard – what with erratic schedules, the stress of patients’ recovery and being the ‘always responsible’ parent. Do you have a story to tell?

It’s Saturday as I am writing this, and unlike many other professions, I never get to work 5 days a week. This might appear a trivial reason to many but ask a mom who isn’t supermom and who just keeps trying to balance her work and her home – this will come as a major jolt once you have kids who need as much time and understanding as any other job you handle.

Well jokes apart…Medicine today is a thankless field and not the glorified version we grew up thinking of.

Any doctor reading this won’t deny that medicine is an imperfect field. Though there may have been leaps and bounds in cancer treatment of a particular cancer, but still, at times a common cold drives even specialised doctors crazy. Wait and watch, they say…but how can you when your child is running high grade fever, and your elders hound you with “What kind of doctor are you? Can’t you treat your own kid?”

Out of 168 hours, your child depending on his schedule will spend approximately 70 hours sleeping, another 70 hours in school and transportation. That leaves a working mom with only 28 hours per week to to teach him values, morals, make him study, play with him. I don’t find this exciting enough. These 28 hours I might be on duty, in the kitchen, or might be juggling my other responsibilities as a homemaker.

The guilt of spending less time with your kid would let you indulge him in his favourite foods, toys, books…in the nutshell overindulge him. And the guilt of spending less time with one kid might push you towards not having another. So, you land up with one overindulgent spoilt brat. And anything to do with his behaviour, studies…you and you will be solely responsible.

The stress of dealing with diseases, patients’ psychology and in the current era of corporates, the management seeking answers to the revenue you generate has made medicine the lousiest of all professions. In today’s scenario, you are always worried about your job, and the thought of what might land you in a lawsuit makes the prime years of life gloomy. To add to it, there is the stress of parenting, being a daughter and a daughter in law ..not to forget the husband.

As a doctor mom, it makes you ponder: wasn’t it better all alone?

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First published here.

Top image via Pixabay

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About the Author

Ruchi chopra

A vagabond ! A lost soul ! A blank page trying to write my own story! By profession, I am a Pathologist ! A doctor behind the scenes. By passion, I am a blogger. I love reading, writing, read more...

12 Posts | 61,404 Views

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