What's your perspective? - short story

Rose sat on her rocking chair in the balcony with her cup of coffee hoping to catch a few precious moments for herself after the hustle bustle of sending her children to school and seeing her husband off to work. The entire family depended on her for their every need and she never failed them. While sipping the coffee she started planning for the rest of the day. She had errands to run, socials to attend and a visit to the parlour was long overdue. At the same time, she knew she had to be home at particular times to let the servant run her magic broom over the place, greet the children when they came back from school and cook for the evening. She kept wondering how she was going to manage.

At that very moment, she observed from the balcony her neighbour, Sheila walking confidently towards her car dressed so professionally, carrying a laptop and appearing so worldly. Suddenly she felt so low, her self-esteem slipping away. Questions kept running in her head, 'What is my standing in the professional world today? 'What is my identity apart from a homemaker? Look at me today, what value do my post graduate degrees hold?

In few minutes, she heard her mobile ringing, the errands were beckoning her. She jerked off her self-doubts and proceeded towards the tasks. 

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Sheila had woken up at 5 am that morning to cook the food for the family and complete her son's Geography project. She felt that the studies were truly getting complicated, she had to set aside time to help him with research and presentation for the project. At 7 am she finally was able to grab a bite while completing all household tasks. She had minimal time to get ready for work. She had a long day ahead of her, there were hordes of meetings lined up with her superiors and clients and her boss was a tough nut. He kept pushing for more and more work to be delivered and the returns comparatively were paltry but they needed the money. She had to keep going till a good job proposal came by her way. Both she and her husband had taken house loans and had placed their child in a good school with high fees. 

As she stepped out of the building with her laptop, she glanced up and watched Rose having her coffee in the balcony and felt a stab of pain. 'Wish I could enjoy those few moments by myself? Hope that time comes soon and moved inside her car.