“I watch as working moms can head off early, introduce flexible hours or work from home more often with absolute envy. I feel we need to push for that same support for pet moms,” she said.
Mary Rose Madigan is a 28-year-old Australian woman who recently came into the spotlight due to a curious request: that she be given the same flexibility at work as women who are mothers of children, all because she too is a “mother“, albeit of a dog.
She’s talking about Frank, a Chihuahua dog, whom Mary adopted last year with her partner. Everything was going normally in their lives, but soon she started having to deal with “mommy guilt” every time she went out of the house and left her “baby” alone.
From what she said, she knows she can leave him unattended for several hours, but still her mind isn’t at ease knowing that her canine is probably sad waiting for her to return. Because of this, she decided to put him in daycare.
The daycare costs $41 a day, and if they’re late picking them up, they’re issued a late fee. For this reason, Mary called for pet owners to be given “the same sort of flexibility and understanding as mothers of human children”.
“I watch as working moms can head off early, introduce flexible hours or work from home more often with absolute envy,” she said, although she is clear that she is in a better position when compared to others.
“I realize my privilege here. I work in an industry that generally wants to help, support and empower women. So, there are systems in place to help moms balance it all,” she said.
“But I feel like we need to push that same support towards moms with pets. I know they’re not children; I know I’m not a mother, and I can never understand the full extent of the burden, but I love my dog more than I ever imagined possible,” she concluded.