This Mom Video Messaged Her Boss While In Labor And It’s Hilarious

In the most American video ever made, Tamara Drpić shared the hilarious message she sent to her boss from the hospital as she was about to give birth. Hopped up on pain meds and an epidural and feeling pretty good, Drpić is going viral for her hilarious (but so sad) reality of what it means to be a working mom in America.

“Hi, thank you for checking in!, Drpić says in the video while donning a hospital gown and a silly smile seemingly from excitement (and fentanyl).

“I'm actually going to have a baby tonight. Right now, I'm drugged up on fentanyl because of the epidural. But yeah, it came way sooner than I expected, but don't worry, I'll wrap up some emails and stuff. Let me know if you have any questions about the window,” she says in the clip.

Don’t worry about being in the moment during this life-changing experience or focus on trying to get a human out of your body. Ensure you follow up with your teams about that project coming down the pipeline and wrap up all those e-mails pre-maternity leave! The way women’s brains work will never cease to amaze me!

While Drpić’s video is supposed to be taken in jest, there is something so sad about it simultaneously. Several TikTok users also noted that this video is just so very...American.

“America core,” one user wrote.

Drpić replied to the popular comment with a follow-up video, admitting that the video message she sent her boss was just the tip of the iceberg.

“Oh, it gets worse. It is so embarrassing. So imagine me, big and pregnant, waddling to the labor and delivery room, holding my laptop and asking, ‘Can I use my laptop to work from there?’ As I am 8 centimeters dilated, and I'm asking to work from the labor and delivery room. So, yeah, very, very America,” she said.

After another user commented that this anecdote was “so sad,” the OP agreed, blaming herself instead of her job.

“I agree 😭 the thing is my job is actually so chill— idk why I was like that ☹️,” she wrote

“You were putting the labor in the Labor and Delivery room 😅,” another joked.

After receiving some flack in her comment section, Drpić went on to explain why she was following up on work tasks while in labor, once again, blaming herself.

“Guys, guys, I love my job. I love my manager. And in fact, I think I go overboard sometimes because I like my job so much,” she prefaced.

“What happened is that my baby actually came a week early, and you know, the doctor's always like, ‘Oh, first-time mom. It'll be a while. It might even be late.’ So I was really expecting, ‘Okay, my 30th or later,’ but then it came out May 23rd, so I was just not there. And this is, like, despite my manager herself being like, ‘Mind down, do less, like months before the due date,’ and I just didn't listen as well as I should have,” she admitted.

Even with a supportive manager, women are still putting in those extra hours while literally having contractions. This is an American problem. And from the looks of it, Drpić will likely take the time off that she was allotted and then be back at it in no time.

The United States is way behind pretty much every other developed country when it comes to time off for new parents. The U.S. does not have mandated paid maternity or paternity leave for working citizens. It is up to each employer to decide whether to offer parental leave. Even federal employees are granted a measly 12 weeks of paid parental leave.

According to Investopedia, 70% of Americans support the idea of paid parental leave. However, only 55% of employers offer paid maternity leave while 45% of businesses also offer paid paternity leave. That means only about half of working parents are receiving some sort of payment while on parental leave.

Across the world, the average for paid maternity leave is about 29 weeks, while the average paid paternity leave is 16 weeks. Most developed countries offer much more — 20 countries, including Canada, Sweden, and Japan, offer more than a year of paid time off for new parents.