Parenting and Family
How can you recover a sense of yourself when becoming a mother leaves you known only as someone's mom?
English translation draft · Based on the Chinese article. This is not a word-for-word translation approved by Master Shengyuan.
Becoming a mother does not make your original self unimportant. Childcare is significant, but your name, interests, and abilities need not disappear into 'someone's mom.' If over time you feel you have vanished, that feeling deserves attention.
A fellow practitioner shared that some friends became known only as their child's mother after childbirth. Busy with childcare, without time to dress up, and with a changed sense of work achievement, they wondered when they could be themselves again. These were those friends' feelings, not an inevitable experience for every mother.
Some later returned to work when children were older and childcare could be arranged, regaining identity and achievement. That was their choice then, not a timetable or path every family must follow.
By living as yourself, I hope people are known as more than someone's wife or mother. Family relationships matter, and who you are matters equally. While caring for family, remember your needs and interests so you are more than a label beside someone else.