Christine Koh, a Singaporean woman who works at the Ministry of Education, has recently penned an illuminating Facebook post which resonated with many people on social media. She was prompted to write the text after witnessing an unpleasant incident in a food court on March 6.
“Today I saw a hubby questioning his wife angrily (in front of everyone in the food court) because he couldn't understand why his wife was always so slow in eating,” Christine started her post, which has now gone viral with 3.7k reactions. The author further stated that the reason for the man's anger and frustration was “because he no longer could handle both a baby in a carrier and a wailing toddler.”
After the husband stormed off with the kids, leaving her to eat alone out in public, Christine shared a heartfelt explanation to why the woman was eating so slowly and it seriously kicked people in the feels.
In her second post, Christine also made it clear that she had no intention to cause a burst of negativity towards the father, since she “didn’t paint the full picture.” On the contrary, her illuminating explanation stands as a tribute to all the mothers who “are often overlooked in the grand scheme.”
Image credits: makelessnoise (not the actual photo)
The Singaporean woman penned this illuminating explanation which resonated with many people on social media and went viral
Bored Panda reached out to Christine Koh, the author of the viral post who said that she penned her reflection post to share in her circle of friends, and hoped that everyone would understand that “in the modern context, a lot of wonderful men have stepped up as a role as a father and are a great partner to support their wives in caregiving and chores,” regardless of this singular incident we don’t know that much about.
Christine believes that the post resonated with her fellow mothers because “we probably encounter this scenario very often, but we didn't think much of it.”
“I don't think they were trying to share the post in order to 'spite their hubbies' or to make guys look bad (since the reverse in the gender role can also happen too, can't it) but they are hoping to use the post to perhaps gain some understanding from our family (not just our partners, but even from our kids).”
Later, she also released an update asking everyone not to spread negativity towards the husband and think of the role of women instead
At this point, it dawned on her that the answer that seemed so obvious to both her and her husband wasn't so obvious at all to everyone, “at least not for both my children and the frustrated hubby who posed this question.”
“This was when I decided to write this reflection post to share with my own circle of friends in the bid to help us give more appreciation and patience to mothers (or even fathers) who are always seen gasping for time to rush out of the house after everyone.”
Christine believes that for some of us, “we probably didn't even realize why we were so slow ourselves and the post probably caught them by surprise. To be able to recognize this beautiful driving power at work behind the reason why is something we love to share with our fellow mothers too, so that we can learn to appreciate ourselves better instead of self-reproaching.”
The post struck a chord with many people and this is what they had to comment
When Christine saw the father storming off with the kids, leaving the mother behind, she started wondering why the mother did not just simply explain this to him. “It made me ponder if she was reproaching herself when she sat there in silence eating her food and staring into the empty space in front of her.”
Moreover, the author of the reflection post said that she thought “it was a good learning moment as both my kids were present and decided to pose a similar question to them—why is their mummy always the slowest to go out of the house whenever we are heading out? Just when I was confident that they could relate to it and know the reason why... to my surprise, my 9-year-old son asked if it was because I was busy dressing up.”
