I had this Super woman syndrome and felt I must do everything on my own just like my mother did. Then I got married and had a baby. I had 2 breaks in my career and then we moved to Mumbai, and I restarted my career. Everything was new to me. We were a nuclear family, there was no support, I was taking care of my daughter and I felt I was in a constant rush. During this time, I never reached out to my husband to ask for help. I felt he should be the one to reach out and offer support. But then, like me, he also saw the same thing at his own home where his mother did everything and he never realized that he could offer assistance.

A few years down the line, when I got wiser, I asked him for help, and at this time he told me that because I never asked for support, he didn’t realize that I needed it. So, asking for help is something I have learnt in my journey. We must not assume that just because someone is in your own home, they would know what you require. This is a ‘Mental Model’. I created a mental model of asking for help and he created a mental model by offering help.