My son asked for help exactly as I sat down

Dear Delyara, There is a special kind of maternal exhaustion in that timing. It wasn’t his fault. He needed help with homework, and he asked in the normal way children ask for help when they still believe your attention is a natural resource. But I had just reached the sofa, had just felt my body lower into the cushion, had just imagined five quiet minutes before the next thing. Then: “Mum?” I helped him. Of course I did. What stayed with me afterward was not resentment toward him, but the sadness of how often my body experiences the almost-rest and not the full rest. Life catches me right at the doorway of relief so often that I can feel myself bracing even when I sit down now. That’s not a healthy way to end a day. It is a common one.