Since becoming a parent, I no longer have much time. There are 4,524 unread emails in my inbox, and I only recently got a pedicure despite the fact that it’s been at least 13 months since I’ve been able to see my feet again. But it turns out that I do have time to be properly livid with the Labour party, which is refusing to budge on its failure to promise to scrap the two-child benefits policy, despite the fact that it has pushed a quarter of a million children into poverty and 850,000 even deeper below the breadline.
Perhaps it’s tone deaf to talk of pedicures in the same breath as child poverty, but these small things mothers do for themselves – getting our roots done, or even just a long, hot bath – help us stay sane. The toll that parenting takes on your body doesn’t stop after birth: it is physical, bone-aching work, and birth of course can lead to myriad long-term health issues. These small acts of self-care matter; they make us feel worth something.
