Tupac’s ‘Dear Mama’ Hits Different On National Working Moms Day And Really Every Day — The Brutal Truth About Working-Mom Guilt [Op-Ed]
March 12 is National Working Moms Day, a chance to say, "You are appreciated," to the women who give their all on the job and at home. But I can’t help asking, are we fighting a losing battle when it comes to work-life balance? The post Tupac’s ‘Dear Mama’ Hits Different On National Working Moms Day And Really Every Day — The Brutal Truth About Working-Mom Guilt [Op-Ed] appeared first on MadameNoire.
Black News ![Tupac’s ‘Dear Mama’ Hits Different On National Working Moms Day And Really Every Day — The Brutal Truth About Working-Mom Guilt [Op-Ed]](https://madamenoire.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2026/03/17733311303586.jpg?quality=80&strip=all&w=814&crop=0,0,100,429px#)
“And I could see you comin’ home after work late / You’re in the kitchen, tryin’ to fix us a hot plate.”
These lyrics from the late rapper Tupac Shakur’s 1995 song “Dear Mama”—a heartfelt and brutally honest autobiographical tribute to his mother, Afeni Shakur—always resonated with me.
I easily related to this imagery because at the time of the track’s release, I was a preteen girl who regularly watched my mom come home from her full-time job around 6:00–6:30 p.m. every weekday and make a beeline for the kitchen to prepare dinner for her family. Usually, she didn’t even change out of her clothes or take a millisecond to decompress. And Lord help us if we forgot to take the meat out of the freezer or there were dishes in the sink, because as she taught my younger sister and me very early on, you can’t cook in a dirty kitchen.
Now, as a 40-something-year-old first-time working mom, the gravity of Tupac’s words is almost as heavy as the nebulous ball that almost always weighs on my chest. This load is comprised of a myriad of things, including work-related stress, overall exhaustion, nonstop thoughts of never-ending to-do and to-buy lists, a newfound but unexpectedly intense resentment towards industrialization and patriarchy, and postpartum changes to my body, hormones, and perspective on pretty much everything in life that matters.
RELATED CONTENT: ‘Geriatric’ Or Not, I’m A Muva — Pregnancy Over Age 40 Is On The Rise & Has Never Looked Better [Op-Ed]
No, I’m not having a midlife crisis or a bout of existentialism. What I’m experiencing is quite literally a heavy heart caused by an overwhelming feeling of working-mom guilt, which is “the emotional tug-of-war many mothers experience when trying to balance their careers and family responsibilities,” according to Postpartum Care USA.
Even in the name itself—“working-mom guilt”—as well as in the definition of the struggle, the focus is solely on a woman’s career and motherhood. The mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical well-being of the actual woman, or her personal needs and desires, aren’t even in the ring, much less a contender to win.
So, I can’t help but wonder, when it comes to managing work and motherhood, ladies, are we fighting a losing battle?
Granted, I’m a rookie to the working mom’s club. My daughter recently turned 10 months old, and I’ve only been back to work for three months. So, I’m fully aware that “it’s only going to get harder as she gets older,” as I’m constantly reminded. I know that eventually, instead of cleaning up blowouts and babyproofing, I’ll have to juggle helping with homework and actually making the time to cook that prepped meat in the fridge, because long gone will be the days of breastmilk, formula, and baby food. Still, the harsh reality of how hard it already is to be a working mom leaves me feeling dismayed, depleted, and damn near dystopian.
And, to be clear, I never expected it to be easy. But I did, perhaps naively, think it would be easier than this.
The post Tupac’s ‘Dear Mama’ Hits Different On National Working Moms Day And Really Every Day — The Brutal Truth About Working-Mom Guilt [Op-Ed] appeared first on MadameNoire.
