Use Your AND - No compromise :-)

We all know, women are playing many roles - cooking, taking care of kids, working in office/ running business these days. It's fortunate that society is also changing accordingly to support working women. Men of these days are helping their spouses in household chores, discussing expenditures and budget with them and contributing in taking care of kids, which is a welcome change. Family members - both parents and in laws are stepping forward to help them to take care of their kids and encouraging them. Without this support and change in society's ideology, we cannot see more successful women high in corporate ladders. Still, we also know that this kind of fortunate women are very less. I strongly believe, even though married women have a strong ambition and right skills, they cannot always succeed without family's support. Here is a story of Asha and her journey from 'OR' to 'AND'.

Asha is very bright kid from childhood, topped always in class. She always wished to become a pilot. Her parents encouraged her even though relatives dismissed her ambitions saying it's very difficult to find a right guy in arranged marriage market if Asha chooses that job. After her graduation, she studied hard, cracked the AFCAT(Air force common admission test). She got selected in women special entry scheme and very happy. 

She got married to her colleague in IAF, everything is well until she delivered a baby boy. After her maternity leave, she is in a confused state, whether to appoint a care taker for her kid and continue her job OR to resign. Her parents and in laws came forward to help her in taking care of the kid for sometime. She could continue her career with the help of supporting husband and family.  She chose her career but that doesn't mean she ignored her kid. She spent more time with kid at home in her day offs. 

As per a research that i read on Internet, working women get attached to kids more emotionally than a stay at home mom. I am not sure if it is true. But, this might be because of the guilt that many working women have to leave their kid and go to office. They want to spend each and every minute in the evenings after returning home to compensate on what they miss for whole day.

We need to take critical decisions sometimes - this OR that. That decision might change our life forever. It's not always impossible to take care of family AND also follow your heart.  What do you say?

Until next time,

“This post is a part of #UseYourAnd activity at BlogAdda in association with Gillette Venus“. Written for the following theme:
 Journey from ‘OR’ to ‘AND’
A story of how a woman took charge of life and made a choice, not a compromise. She followed her heart.

#UseYourAnd

Mansi AND her story

Mansi is born in a middle class family. Mansi's father ensured that she completed her academics in best schools and colleges. She also proved her mettle by topping in academics every year and making her father proud.

She is jack of all trades. A true enthusiast  of every art. She learnt dance from childhood, learnt singing, enjoyed paintings, participated in skits for youth festivals in college. She wants to try everything new and is not afraid of failure. She is very optimistic in life and learns from mistakes. She loves travelling and travelled to a lot of places alone and also enjoyed planning tours with family. 

For Mansi, life is meant to be enjoyed. After her marriage, being a wife, working woman and mother she never left her hobbies. She is crazy about travelling and reading books. So, she also started maintaining a blog to share her travelogues and give opinion on the books that she read. People would envy her asking how she could manage time for her hobbies like singing, dancing; painting and reading. But her reply is always same -

Life is meant to be enjoyed.
We can add more ANDs to our life with supporting family and our own enthusiasm.
Life is short and there many things yet to be explored.
There is no limit for creativity in this world.

So, that's the story of Mansi. She can't be restricted by one label. She added many ANDs to her life and she loves wearing all those different hats :) A jack of all trades and master of none! I hope you would have come across many such women in your lives. Please do share in comments  :-)

PS: By the way, this story is not completely fiction. I would be boasting myself if i say, Mansi very much resonates with my interests :)

Until next time,

“This post is a part of #UseYourAnd activity at BlogAdda in association with Gillette Venus“.
#UseyYourAND
Written for the initiative by Gillette Venus for the theme #Things that define me.