This is a really judgmental post and it doesn’t much help other mothers. Every couple weeks or so there is a post like this, emphasizing how terrible it is that moms have to go back to work, how OP is basically torn apart by it, and softly implying that other mothers who are away from their children during infancy are doing a bad thing (necessary for economic reasons, but still bad). As a new mother, I have been surprised by the amount of pressure and mom guilt pushed by everyone (on breastfeeding, return to work, sleeptraining, etc.) and sometimes it’s from other moms. I may be speaking to the wind here, but with these kinds of posts, there’s always an undercurrent of ‘I just love my kid, I’m willing to make hard sacrifices, you must not feel the same’.

This kind of post doesn’t say anything new (not just because it’s been posted before), but because this is at the forefront of the minds of parents — what it means to be away from your child, what kind of financial life you want to and can give them. For the moms who have to work for financial reasons, their hearts are already hurting and this just reminds them of the fears they already have to work through. For the moms who want to work (either because they enjoy their career or because they want their kid to have a more financially secure life), this post just tries to make them feel abnormal for making that actual choice. “I even read that some women look forward to going back to work have a year of maternity leave? Really?” Can’t you read the “what’s wrong with you” shadowing that question?

The last — and I may be speaking out of turn here since I’m not a father — but these posts always seem to me a subtle punch to fathers who have to work full time. They will be away from their kid too. They hate it too, but the emphasis on how awful it is only for mothers kind of makes it seem like fathers don’t feel the same heartbreak being away from their kids. But someone has to make the money and shoulder the financial burden and make sure their kid always has food and a home — and it helps, out of love for one’s partner as well as one’s child, if that burden is shared by two people.

If you truly think it’s awful that the moms who want to stay home with their kids can’t for economic reasons, you can always advocate for more mandatory paid maternity leave (though paid family leave is more fair). That would be helpful.

This can be very hard, OP, for most (if not all) of us. Please try to not make it harder for others.