A working mother goes viral for tweeting an email signature that starts a conversation about the lack subsidised childcare

Anything is possible for women, and when you think about the responsibilities of being a working mom, this is especially true.

The major challenge for a working mother is finding a delicate balance between family and career. According to Forbes’ research, many mothers report feeling overburdened when they return to the workplace.

Working mothers may find it challenging to adjust to new routines and make accommodations for their children. An email signature from a 39-year-old mother of four, that states that sometimes there is not enough time to react, has gone viral.

After getting a “snippy” email asking why she had not yet replied to an email sent barely 24 hours earlier, Meg St-Esprit of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, tweeted a screen shot of her new email signature to Twitter.

“Some folks who saw my email signature commented on it, so I wanted to share,” she wrote in the tweet that has been viewed more than 104 000 times.

“Please note I may be slower to respond to email in the months of June, July and August due to the United States’ inability to provide affordable childcare for working mothers,” the signature bluntly reads.

The median annual childcare costs in 2018 ranged from $4.810 to $15.417, according to a January 2023 study from the US Department of Labour, which, when adjusted for inflation, would be about $5.357 to $17.171 in 2022, the Entrepreneur says.

These costs have been labelled “unaffordable for families” by the Department of Labour’s official blog, which also notes that “childcare consumes a large share of family income among those who pay for childcare services”.

The mother received appreciation from many social media users for speaking up and for showing grace while juggling four young children.

“Brilliant. I usually do auto-responders that say stuff like this,” one woman commented on the Twitter thread. “Never thought to use it as a signature. Mind if I steal this?”, she continued.

“Everyone is feeling this,” St-Esprit told ‘Today’. Everyone wants to be able to know that if you’re at the pool with your kids and you’re planning to work until 11pm. that night to catch up — which is what I do — that you don’t have to respond to that email right away.”

St-Esprit is a freelance journalist and, like many mothers, is having trouble combining working from home with being the main caregiver.

Although women are frequently reminded to take care of themselves, it is currently comically difficult for most mothers to find adequate time for a break. Maybe expecting the government to pay for a mothers-only spa week after the pandemic is too much. But in a post-Covid-19 future, mothers would also gain from a night alone in their home, a relationship with a helpful therapist, or a day without children to spend with friends, as well as a caring government.