I hid in the laundry room for three minutes

Dear Delyara, I am a mother of two, and today the laundry room felt more peaceful than any room in the house. That sounds sad when I write it down, but it is true. The washing machine was on, the dryer was humming, and there was a pile of school uniforms waiting for me, but for those three minutes nobody was asking me anything. No one wanted food, no one was shouting from upstairs, no one was asking where their football socks were, no one was telling me they had remembered something important for tomorrow at the very last second. I stood there holding a clean pillowcase and just breathed. I did not cry. I did not pray. I did not even think very clearly. I just stood in that small room and felt what it was like not to be needed for a moment. Then my son shouted, “Mum!” from the hallway, and I went back into the house like I had never left it. But I had. For three minutes, I had.