Momma Tales: HELP – I Have 2 Kids, a 9-5 Job, a Nanny in the Village & My Creche is Suddenly Closing for 2 Weeks!
It’s time for Momma Tales and today we have a very serious situation that needs urgent solutions.
Meet Chinonso Okeyi. She is a hard-working mom of 2 who is trying her best to build a career. Without a lot of help from family, she gets by with a creche. However, on this particular day, all hell breaks lose.
***
“We would be closing for physical repairs on the 19th. Normal creche operations resume on the 3rd of January. Please bear with us as…” I had an instant headache as I read this message from Ozy and Keziah’s crèche.
My name is Chinonso Okeyi. I am a working mum of a 13-month old and a 7-month old and I do not get a lot of breaks off work. The thought of shopping for alternative interim childcare arrangements for my two tots was so unsettling. I had no relative available to babysit them for two weeks. Two long weeks! And taking time off work at this time and at such short notice was not an option available to me too.
“So resign now…ah! ah!…is that too much for you to do for your children?” My older sister, Chinwe, counselled. It was a local call but she sounded like she was speaking from another planet as her words opened a floodgate of guilt. But why should I feel guilty? What was my ‘crime? Grappling with the often daunting responsibilities of raising young children and building a career and a business of my dreams? “If I have support systems I can trust I don’t have to stop work, Chinwe. It still takes a village to raise a child. It’s just that the ‘villagers’ have changed. I need a good creche that is designed to support mothers like me. One that does not shut down suddenly. I am….“. “I’d call you back, Chinwe. I have a call coming in from the office.” I tried to swap the calls as my Group Head’s number kept beeping and flashing on my screen as an incoming call.
Merely seconds later, I heard a loud crashing sound and I rushed into the children’s room, just on time to see my 13-month old, Ozy, pulling down a stack of toys. My nanny had taken two weeks off to visit her aged mother in the village. She wasn’t sure she would come back. She would let me know.
“Exasperation” does not begin to describe how I feel.
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What do you think Chinonso should do? Take her sister’s advice? Apply for leave anyway? Get another Creche ASAP? Get her Nanny to come back home now?
Written by Itoro Ugorji
Itoro runs a top-notch creche in Lagos and has the passion and experience to walk us through Momma Tales. She will be filtering the noise to share tested tips, based on live examples, even as she brings us the voices of other women along the way. Fasten your seatbelts for the rollercoaster ride that is Parenting, with the funny yet deep relatable accounts of the life of today’s working mother.
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