All roles of parenting, whether you’re a stay-at-home mom, a working mom, or somewhere in between, have their challenges.
But a simple TikTok video from working mom Brookie the Cookie (@adayinaeats) struggling with missing her baby sitting up for the first time is hitting people hard in the feels.
The video may be particularly powerful because of its simplicity: it features just an image of Brookie sobbing quietly, alone at her desk.
The TikTok is just a little over a minute long and doesn’t need words or a voiceover to convey the absolute heartbreak the mother is feeling.
"Being a working mom is so much harder than I thought it would be," the crying mother captioned the video.
“Missing these milestones just breaks me,” she added.
Some of the comments went a little haywire, veering off into some strange territory, chiding how women “fought” for the right to work, while somehow completely missing the fact that it’s only our country that lacks any type of guaranteed maternity leave?), but a large percentage of them got the point:
That missing baby milestones can be heartbreaking.
Brookie has posted a lot about her life as a working mom, including the challenging realities, such as pumping breast milk at her desk.
In another TikTok, Brookie shared that she had 4.5 months off after having her baby, although it’s not clear if that was paid maternity leave or not.
However, as many working moms in America know, if you work for a small enough company, there is no guarantee of any type of paid or unpaid leave, and many moms only get 6 weeks.
After her TikTok went viral, Brookie addressed how people were “so mean” in the comment section, but explained that she was still glad she had decided to share more about her life as a young, married working mom.
“It is very isolating,” she said. “I wanted to find more people who I could share my life with and connect with and build a community and share my passions…and to me, that’s so worth it.”
