Mom's Viral Post About Making Sacrifices Is Something Every Parent Will Relate To

This mom wrote a viral post about the sacrifices moms and dads make while raising kids

As parents, it’s easy to get frustrated by the demands of every day life. We have so much on our plates, and it’s exhausting to feel like you’re the only one pulling all the weight. One Tennessee mom was feeling totally burnt out and resentful about the hard job of raising three kids, but in a now-viral post, she says watching her husband eat dinner with their daughter changed her thinking completely.

Katie Spence Pugh is a pharmaceutical rep and mom from West Tennessee. Recently, she shared a photo on Facebook of her husband and their daughter, Charlotte, eating in the kitchen, but it’s the photo’s moving caption that’s inspired people to share it more than 53,000 times.

“I snapped this picture at the end of a long day,” Pugh wrote. “I was tired. I was irritated. I had sent my husband a text telling him that I knew it wouldn’t make a difference, but I wanted him to know that I was feeling fed up with how much he works and with all that I have to do everyday by myself. The full time job, cooking dinner, bathing kids, weekend trips without him, keeping up a home, you name it I was resenting it.”

Pugh explained that she has “these little moments” often throughout planting and harvesting season. See, her husband is a farmer, and spends his days “working to uphold 4 generations of blood sweat and tears” on the family farm he took over after they married. Often, she said, she only sees him for about an hour a day. “Farmers work in a thankless profession,” wrote Pugh. “It’s always non GMO this and organic that, and let’s not even talk about the stress from Mother Nature.”

But, on this particular night, her husband put his work aside after he got her message. “He came in, fixed his plate and sat down to eat all alone,” she explained. “He was tired. He was hot. He was exhausted. Rather than complain, he said he was sorry I was tired… Charlotte joined him and talked his head off and even ate most of his dinner. He didn’t complain. He shared, and it hit me.”

Continued Pugh, “So while I felt frustrated, I really should have felt thankful. I got to sit down to dinner and hear all the stories from the day with the kids. I got to give them a bath and hear their squeals and giggles. I got to snuggle and love on them for 3 hours more than he did. He is the one sacrificing, not me.”

Pugh’s post has been shared tens of thousands of times, not only because it’s a stunning reminder of the hard work of farmers all over the country, but also because it reflects a struggle so many families feel. In the stress of work and school, carpools, soccer games, housework, and piano lessons, it’s easy to feel burdened by the sacrifices we’re making.

So many of the fights I have with my own husband are over what he’s doing versus what I’m doing, and whether or not we’re meeting each other halfway. I get busy and he picks up the slack, and then feels overwhelmed. He gets busier, and I shoulder the extra load at home, and I feel resentful. In the trenches of the day-to-day, it’s easy to overlook the sacrifices of others and only focus on your own struggles.

Raising a family is a whole lot of give and take — often a lot more give than we’re comfortable with — but Pugh’s post is a beautiful and simple reminder to stop and appreciate the people in our lives who help us and support us, even when we’re feeling overwhelmed.