Jaime Mulligan of Milton, Massachusetts, is one of the many working moms who's been doing it all during this pandemic.
“Teacher, technology director, chauffeur, never mind my full time job, housekeeper.... It’s been the hardest year of my life,” she said.
In what little spare time she has, Mulligan assists grassroots organization Open Milton Public Schools. It’s one of many similar organizations in the state, run by parents, that have popped up this year to advocate for kids to go back into school.
“Even though we’re doing our 97 jobs during the day, I think there’s Zoom calls and phone conversations every single night of the week,” Mulligan said.
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Susannah Hegarty of Milton has five kids in four different schools. In addition to her full-time job as a labor lawyer for the nurses union and her candidacy for the school committee, she’s spent countless hours advocating for her kids, she said.
“It’s 10 minutes here and then 10 minutes there and then at night, when the kids are finally in bed, you’re catching up on everything,” Hegarty said.
Photo Project Asks Kids What They've Missed During a Year of Pandemic Lockdown
For these moms, it’s been a whole new world.
Mulligan said this year has been a very good lesson in town and local politics, “something that I had never paid enough attention to, and now I realize how much I do need to pay attention to it.”
They said the sleepless nights, though, have only made them stronger. They have new friends and ties to their community, and an appreciation for the impact of activism.
Mulligan said: “I think we’ll all look back at this and say, how the heck did we do it? Because we are super-moms.”
