This is the story of a girl named Anais (a fictional name for the purposes of this text). Anais, a mom, sets the bar high for herself to make everyone around her happy. She does a million things in a day: packing everyone’s lunches, cleaning the house, paying bills, handling crises, and so on… You know, like a woman deeply in love with her partner and her kids—she wants to give them everything, to the point of forgetting about herself.
Anais succeeds with flying colors in making her home a haven filled with happiness and love, and she’s proud of it. But something is still missing. A little self-love—because she gives all her love to others, and at night she sheds a tear or two because no one thought of her that day. Anais works 40 hours a week, just like her partner, and she’d like the chores to be shared a little more equally. She tells him this, but that’s as far as it goes, because she loves seeing her little ones play and be happy. The weeks go by, and the few tears shed in the evening turn into big, secret tears in the shower.
One day, Anais decided not to go back to work—she didn’t have the strength. She dropped the kids off at school and went back home to shut herself away in the living room with the curtains drawn. She lay sprawled on the sofa, crying tears of exhaustion that wouldn’t stop. When her partner came home and saw her in the living room without the children, her eyes swollen, he quickly understood. Anais couldn’t take it anymore!
All Anais had been asking for all these weeks, months, and years was to be heard. She needed love, help, and recognition. Anais has the right to feel valued as a woman. Her partner waited all those weeks, months, and years to finally realize that she, too, needed love.
Why wait to say “I LOVE YOU”? Why wait to say “THANK YOU”? Why wait until someone is at the end of their rope to finally listen to them?
Anais deserves to be happy just as much as she brings happiness to her family. You, the woman who feels sad, you deserve to be happy. Today I say: Anais, I love you!
Laurence Roy