I packed lunch while everyone else relaxed

Dear Delyara, That sentence contains more of family life than I ever expected it would. The children were in the other room laughing at something, my husband had finally sat down, and I was at the counter washing fruit, cutting sandwiches, finding the right containers, making sure one child’s thing wasn’t mixed with the other one’s, checking whether there were enough snacks left for tomorrow, and trying not to resent the fact that none of this happens by magic. I don’t want applause for lunch. I want witness. I want someone to say, yes, this is labour, and yes, it counts, and yes, the person standing in the kitchen at 8:40 p.m. is still doing part of tomorrow while everyone else gets to feel done with today. That would help more than people think.