When Married At First Sight’s Melissa Rawson returned to work after maternity leave, a man told her now that she had children, she might need to rethink her career.
“A man, who I didn’t know and didn’t know me in any capacity, said now that ‘I had children, I might not be compatible with my job…'” Melissa recalled in a new post on her blog Her Second Shift
Melissa admitted that at the time, the comment really got to her.
“I fought back tears and held my composure,” she wrote. “No way was I going to give him the satisfaction that his words had affected me.”
Melissa, 35, is a “stay at home mum” to two-year-old twins Levi and Tate, who she welcomed with husband Bryce Ruthven in 2021.
Liss said the man’s comment made her feel like she really did have to choose between these two parts of her life, which she did not think was fair.
“Choosing my children was of course a no-brainer. It doesn’t mean that I was happy about it. I should never have had to make that kind of choice. Not in our current climate.”
Liss said she had been on mental health leave since March and during this time, she and her employer decided to “call time” of her employment.
She revealed her decision to leave work when she captioned a video “Having to choose between my career and my babies… I chose them 💙.”
Liss said when it comes to a job, she needs “a little more flexibility than my working husband does” and called out the unnamed man’s views as outdated.
“I think I juggle more appointments, lists, chores, reminders, tasks, meetings and schedules than many working men – all stay-at-home-mums and working mums do,” she said.
“And I am the primary parent after all.
“On top of this, having to be a wife, drowning in lack of friendships, failing to keep my life in order doesn’t make me undesirable.
“It means, Mr. Career Man: ‘cut me some freakin’ slack and do better than your generation’s idea of what a woman should be capable of in 2024.'”
Liss concluded that “a job is not looking like it is on the cards for me any time soon”, but she’s not letting the disheartening experience get to her anymore.
“What I’ll take away from recent experiences is that I did the right thing and a better opportunity in my working life will eventually come along,” she said.