The good Indian daughter-in-law is always on duty; the result? She can never get peaceful or even sufficient sleep.
After I got married, getting a good night of sleep became nearly impossible. In the name of tradition, whether for taking care of guests or sometimes for taking care of my husband and kids, I had to always sacrifice my sleep for the sake of others. Somehow, it was only my problem, one that wasn’t noticed by others.
Original in Hindi | Translation by Nishtha Pandey
We all know how essential sleep is to keep our minds and bodies healthy. Getting at least 6-8 hours of sleep is considered a must for every individual. But somehow, this philosophy is not applied to the daughters-in-law of the house.
A DIL is always expected to be on her toes 24/7. Her sleep schedule is given the least importance. The same thing happened to me too when I got married.
I used to sleep on my terms before marriage
When I was not married, I used to sleep on my own terms. I always used to get late for school because I used to get up late. To prevent the same thing happening during college, my mother started waking me up at 7 o’clock so that I could reach college at 9 o’clock. Still, I would lazily get up at 8 o’clock and go to college.
Then, after coming back from college I used to eat and sleep again from 2 in the afternoon to 5 in the evening. Now if you think this is too much sleep already, then let me tell you that with despite all this sleep, at night I used to head to bed at 10 o’clock. Moral of the story: my sleeping schedule was very peaceful when I was not married!
Sometimes, my mother would get very angry and say, “What will you do when you get married? Let me tell you once you get married, you’ll be on your toes 24/7 and yearn for some peaceful sleep, better get used to that from now onwards.” I always used to take my mom’s scolding lightly. Sadly, all that she said came true.
