I sat in the parked car after work and didn’t go inside for eleven minutes

Dear Delyara, I watched the rain on the windscreen and did absolutely nothing. No phone, no radio, no messages, no deep breathing exercise, no motivational thought. Just the engine off, the key in my hand, and eleven quiet minutes before I crossed the line into the second shift of the day. That’s what home can feel like sometimes when you are the mother of a family — not rest, but the next set of requirements waiting to begin. Dinner. Laundry. Homework. Emotional availability. Practical memory. Clean uniforms. Toothpaste running low. Another form to sign. Another thing to remember because if you don’t remember it, it may not happen at all. So I sat in the car until I could feel myself becoming more human and less defensive. I think those eleven minutes saved the evening from a version of me that would have come in sharper.