Moms Are Setting Gen Z Straight About The Realities Of Maternity Leave

Maternity leave is the period of time that a new mother takes off from work after the birth of her baby. That’s the simple, Webster’s Dictionary type of definition of what maternity leave is. However, moms know that it’s so much more than that.

Maternity leave is a time when moms take off work and dedicate their every waking moment to their new child, learn the ins and outs of motherhood, and recover from a majorly traumatic physical event — all while not sleeping at all. One time, I had an old (male) boss ask me how my “vacation” was when I returned from my extremely short maternity leave.

“Vacation?” You mean, the hardest eight weeks of my entire life?

A girl on TikTok is going viral for her dreamy and hopeful take on what her future maternity leave will be like, which resulted in more than a few moms commenting that this girl is completely delusional about the realities of early motherhood.

“My Roman Empire is my future maternity leave. I'm not married or anywhere near ready for a child but I cannot wait to be waited on hand and foot by my husband, eat as much as I want, and not have to move or work all day everyday,” TikTok user @otalmage wrote in text overlay on her now-viral video.

Even with the most attentive partner, maternity leave does not allow for much rest. Waking up every two hours to feed, bounce a colicky baby for what seems like an eternity, and change your disposable underwear are just a few of the lovely things that will take priority over eating whatever you’d like and being waited on hand and food.

There’s also the whole hormones being totally out of whack thing to deal with as well as the mental gymnastics of grieving your old life that you’ll never get back thing whilst feeling full of love and gratitude for your adorable newborn. It’s emotionally exhausting.

And then, in most cases, because maternity leave stinks in the United States, your partner will have to go back to work before you, leaving you to take care of everything on your own, while your body is still healing. No being waited on for you!

This girl’s totally innocent and wrong take on what maternity leave looks like is so genuine and sweet, I feel very bad to dash her dreams. Thankfully, so many other moms did it for me in her comment section.

One user wrote, “And then all the moms laughed and laughed 🤣🤣🤣💖💖💖💖💖”

Another echoed, “Love my baby, loved being pregnant, loved postpartum but: Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha”

“Cannon event I can’t interfere 😭😭😭,” another said.

One user noted, “Even if you have a supportive partner - it’s so difficult and not at all a vacation from life !!! 😂 But I was also you once so I get it. 😂”

“The most relaxing part of maternity leave: I got to leave the house alone in milk soaked pajamas and stand in line at the pharmacy for 45 minutes 😂,” one admitted.

One mom admitted that she couldn’t wait to get back to her job.

“Just finishing up my 5 month mat leave and I’ve never been more tired in my life 😅 I miss just having to work lol,” she said.

Others noted that they get where the OP is coming from, remarking that maternity leave can be a very special time for new moms. However, it’s no break from work.

“You’re getting roasted but honestly, I loved maternity leave. It’s a different hard but so much better,” one user said.

One TikTok user sided with the OP asking, “do the people in the comments not like their kids. I loved it.”

A mom responded, “I loved it also. but it's not sitting around getting waited on hand and foot. lol.”

Others assured the child-free woman that her dream of maternity leave was achievable and said, “Girl don’t let these comments scare you, I love postpartum! Time off work, husband delivers starbies every morning, ubering almost all our food lol.”

Even with a dedicated support system (partner, doula, etc.), maternity leave and postpartum life can take unexpected turns for moms like suffering from postpartum depression which affects around one in seven women. Around 50% of postpartum depression cases are never even diagnosed or treated.

There’s a whole lot of work to be done, in healthcare and in Washington, before maternity leave can be more manageable for future generations.