The Mothers Before Us

Sometimes I just don't want to. Like right now. I just want to sit at my computer and feed my social media habit. I love my children, and I am glad to me their mother, but sometimes I don't want to. I just want to be ME. I want to be selfish. I think about the women of the past. The mothers before us. Not just our mothers, or even our grandmothers, but before them. The ones that had even fewer choices than us. The women who didn't have the option of parking their kid in front of a TV for thirty minutes so they could have a break. The women who couldn't just pick up take out when they didn't feel like cooking. The women who had no choices in how they spent their day. The things they did made the difference between survival or not. Life or death for their children. Did their kids follow them around all day screaming "play with me!" ? Was there time for that? Did they get time for themselves? To be selfish? I don't know if I am strong enough to have been one of those women.