I underestimated the mental and emotional labor of being a parent. This job doesn't have any downtime.

The author (not pictured) says she thought motherhood would be a 'second shift.'

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• Before having kids, I thought parenthood would be like a 'second shift,' after work.
• It's not like that. It's a constant hum running in the background of everything else.
• There's no clocking out of being a parent.

The babysitter canceled at 2:14 p.m.

I was standing in the kitchen between meetings, rinsing out a lunchbox that still...