I was tired. < img src = "https://zycie.news/crrops/c55cbf/620x0/1/0/2025/04/22/e2xbbsn1jw7y6xuxabqqfu0vuqdio3itpjn85xwq.jpg" alt = "child @pexels" styles = "background-color: rgba (120,111,91,1)" > < p > not physically & ndash; mentally. Three years non -stop with a child by the side, without a single day off. When he fell asleep, I fell with him. When he cried, my heart crumbled with him. And when he laughed, I remembered that I was once a woman. Not only mother.

< P >M & oacute; Jehrą & AMP; NDASH; Eternally busy. From the morning in the office, tired in the evening. Mother -in -law ? was close but emotionally far away. She always had & oacute; and this hip hurts, and this is a friend in the hospital, and this & I have already raised my brought up ” < p > but then & ndash; When I found a promotion on the internet for a weekly trip to the seaside with friends & ndash; Something crashed in me. I didn't think long. I called my mother -in -law. She agreed surprisingly. “For a week ? good, just leave everything prepared.”

< p > I left. Clothes, food, list of favorite games. I kissed my son on my forehead and for the first time in years I packed my suitcase with myself.

< p > Holidays were beautiful. Fresh air, silence, laughter without interrupting him with a child's scream. I bathed in the sea, looked at the sky and felt free. For a moment I felt myself again.

< p > but what I found after returning, I got into the ground.

< p > A mother -in -law was waiting in the door. On the table & ndash; envelope. Inside: bill. For & ampquo; professional childcare & rdquo;. Calculation of hours, rate like a nanny from agency, amount: PLN 2,100. And cold comment:

< p > & ndash; You said you were leaving him with me, but nobody asked if I wanted to be a nanny for free. I have already worked in my life.

< p > I was & oacute; I saw.

< p > & ndash; But … you are his grandmother.

< p > & ndash; And so of this ? & ndash; She shrugged. & ndash; I am to be a loser because you gave birth to a child ?

< p > I didn't answer. I took my son, bag, his teddy bear. And in yourself & ndash; something much heavier than a vacation suitcase.

< p > because I discovered that sometimes blood ties are just words. And the love, which we expect from the family, can be converted into hours, rates and cold looks.

Natasha Kumar

By Natasha Kumar

Natasha Kumar has been a reporter on the news desk since 2018. Before that she wrote about young adolescence and family dynamics for Styles and was the legal affairs correspondent for the Metro desk. Before joining The Times Hub, Natasha Kumar worked as a staff writer at the Village Voice and a freelancer for Newsday, The Wall Street Journal, GQ and Mirabella. To get in touch, contact me through my natasha@thetimeshub.in 1-800-268-7116