A speaker (posted by Jacqueline Elliott) recounts feeling trapped by familial expectations—particularly as a Hispanic mother—and describes becoming a "slave to" her family by putting herself last. She experienced a turning point after choosing self-love and self-care (fixing her hair, showering), which changed how her partner Andy and her children viewed her; she now feels her kids look up to her and urges others to give themselves courage and self-care.
Chapters
I was trying to take care of so much as that Hispanic mother woman that was felt like she's gonna be criticized by her whole entire family, of all of the people on the other side, thinking I was gonna be a failure if I didn't take care of it, that I became a slave to my family and I put myself last. I wasn't being a good example to my kids. I wasn't being a good example to Andy. He would look up to me. He would show up, and he would see my kids, oh, hey, kids, I'm home. Throw them up in the air. And he'd come up to me, hey, babe, what's up? What's for dinner? My self wor was in the. I decided to give myself self love, and I decided to fix my hair, take a shower. And then all of a sudden, mom, what are you doing? It's interesting. Never asked me that. Right then Andy was like, oh, my gosh, what are you doing? And I started believing in myself. I started putting some love into myself. And then now I can truly tell you that my kids do look up to me. Some of you ladies that have kids or some of you men that have wives need to give that courage to your work.