Beyonce is Back to Work...Round of Applause?

On the way to the hospital today, I was able to catch up on the current events of the pop world. The top story for the duration of my ride was that our girl Bey has scheduled her first concert dates since the birth of her daughter. Memorial Day weekend will mark the post-partum comeback that her fans have been waiting on, and I'm sure she will not disappoint!

What has me feeling some kind of way about the story was how astonished the DJ was that she was returning this May. That she only took SIXTEEN WEEKS off and how hard it must be for her to leave Blue Ivy and get back to work. Even MTV News has labeled her "the world's hardest working mother".

I'm sorry, but this deserves not one, but TWO of the infamous Samuel Jackson :side eye:

 

Maybe it's because the average American woman's maternity leave (paid time off) is six weeks. Or maybe it's because my own "maternity leave" (if that's what you would even call doing unpaid school work from home + a spring break) was three weeks. Or maybe it's because women are forced to leave their babies earlier than I am sure most would want to, and without the luxury of on-site staff for them and their child while they get used to balancing work and family life.

For example, one of my classmates gave birth to her daughter the Friday before we started our last exam block. And by last week our professors had posted our scores (within a week of taking our exams). This  means that she (and her husband who is a classmate as well) had taken all three exams. Which then means that after having the baby, getting as much sleep as you can get with a newborn (and their already two year old daughter), they studied, and then took their exams.

For me, that is what constitutes a BAWSE.

No matter how long you have with your newborn before returning to work, and no matter who you are, it is always hard. I respect Beyonce's hustle, but this is one thing I cannot give her accolades for, because I know too many real-world, hard-working mommies that are also making it happen for themselves and their families with a third of the time off and, not to mention, at a fraction of the salary.

Licia Ronzulli, an MEP from Italy, took her seven-week old daughter Victoria to work at the European parliament at Strasbourg. Photographs of Ronzulli cradling her daughter in a sling as she voted on proposals to improve women's employment rights were broadcast around the world and published in newspapers from the US to Vietnam.