Ryshell Castleberry is a part-time tattoo artist and a full-time mom. Located in Florida, Ryshell wanted to share her message with the world as she explained what it takes to be a stay-at-home mother. Sharing her message on Facebook, Ryshell was shocked to see over 635,000 likes and 300,000 shares.

Phrasing her message as a conversation between a psychologist and a husband, the husband complained about how his wife would stay at home and not work. The psychologist questioned the husband, asking him how his wife spent her time at home. After a series of questions, it became clear that the woman’s time spent at home could easily be considered a full-time job.

“This is the daily routine of many woman all over the world, it starts in the morning and continues until the wee hours of the night. This is called ‘doesn’t work?! Being a housewife has no diplomas, but has a key role in family life! Enjoy and appreciate your wife, mother, grandma, aunt, sister, daughter,” Ryshell explained.

Despite receiving a lot of support from strangers around the world, Ryshell was also met with quite a bit of backlash. Although to many the post was likely empowering to many stay-at-home moms, some moms with traditional jobs took the post to be condescending to their professions.

One comment left on Ryshell’s post stated how many moms not only had a full-time job outside of the house but also completed all the tasks a stay-at-home mom did with “8 hours less a day to do it all.” Ryshell understood where some of these moms were coming from, but ensured the public she meant no ill-will by her original post, but rather attempted to show the world that stay-at-home moms are not just lazy.

Standing behind what she said, Ryshell explained how she felt her post was simply to explain how any parent, whether a mom or dad, would be able to mold their own personal situation into the general message she was trying to convey. Ryshell wanted to simply show how the life of a parent was not made easy by simply staying at home, and this was a truth for both fathers and mothers alike.

Here’s the full text of her Facebook post:

My wife does not work
My wife doesn’t work!!!

Conversation between a husband (H) and a psychologist (P):

Q: what do you do for a living Mr. Rogers?
H: I work as an accountant in a bank.

P: Your wife?
H: She doesn’t work. She’s a housewife.

Q: Who makes breakfast for your family?
H: My wife, because she doesn’t work

Q: What time does your wife wake?
H: She wakes up early because it has to be organised. She organizes the lunch for the children, ensures that they are well-dressed and combed, if they had breakfast, if they brush their teeth and take all their school supplies. She wakes with the baby and changes diapers and clothes. Breastfeeds and makes snacks as well.

Q: How do your children get to school?
H: My wife takes them to school, because she doesn’t work.

P: After taking their children to school, what does she do?
H: Usually takes a while to figure something out that she can do while she is out, so she doesn’t have to pack and unpack the carseat too many times, like drop off bills or to make a stop at the supermarket. Sometimes she forgets something and has to make the trip all over again, baby in tow. Once back home, she has to feed the baby lunch and breastfeed again, get the baby’s diaper changed and ready for a nap, sort the kitchen and then will take care of laundry and cleaning of the house. You know, because she doesn’t work.

P: In the evening, after returning home from the office, what are you doing?
H: Rest, of course. Well, I’m tired after working all day in the bank.

Q: What does your wife do at night?
H: She makes dinner, serves my children and I, washes the dishes, orders once more the house, makes sure the dog is put away as well as any left over dinner. After helping children with HW she gets them prepared to sleep in pajamas and the baby is in fresh diapers, gives warm milk, verifies they brush their teeth. Once in bed she wakes frequently to continue to breastfeed and possibly change a diaper if needed while we rest. Because she doesn’t have to get up for work.

While Castleberry’s post has gone viral, she has received backlash and criticism from others. Working moms and single fathers were offended by her post.

In response, Castleberry says, “Let me take a minute to clarify something for people making nasty comments or sending me nasty messages. First of all, this statement is generalized … At no point am I complaining, at no point am I not giving credit to the man who does work, the mom who does work (which I DOOOO, actually, proving how generalized this is and not to be taken LITERAL,) or the stay at home DAD. IF YOU are any of those things, read the message and replace the words with words that fit your situation. No one is coming on here being so specific as to say that they do not breastfeed, their husband is a laborer not a banker or they do not have a dog; IT IS GENERALIZED. You take the POSITIVE that you see from it and leave the rest.”

[Source: ATTN]

Share on Facebook

Share this article

By Jenny Brown

[email protected]

Jenny Brown is a senior writer at Shareably. She is based in San Francisco and can be reached at [email protected].