My initial reaction upon receiving a drawing from Priya Amin’s 7-year-old son was the stereotypical ‘ohh, that’s so cute!’

Looking at the sketch more closely, though, left her speechless; it was a tragic portrayal of their conversation from only ten minutes before.

‘Mommy are you done?’ the little boy or girl watched as their parent worked. Sitting in front of her laptop, the mother says,

‘No,’ without turning around. ‘I actually looked at it, and it broke my heart,’ Amin said on Good Morning America. ‘Well, it sort of warmed and broke my heart at the same time.’

After distributing the photo among her coworkers, the mother of two received encouragement to compose a blog entry regarding the event.

‘I chose to share the blog originally via a LinkedIn post because I knew this was something universally

felt by parents everywhere right now, and we’re all feeling like we’re shouldering this alone,’ she told Scary Mommy.

Amin, whose post went viral rapidly, said she understood why her son’s painting struck a chord with so many people even though she hadn’t expected that kind of response.

‘All I wanted to do was close up my laptop and spend time with my kids, but I knew that if I didn’t get a few important things done,

I wouldn’t be able to get my mind off of them,’ she stated. ‘I believe that a lot of parents experience that,

particularly in the midst of the pandemic, when life and work have merged and finding time to walk away

from work is really difficult. I was starkly reminded of how difficult that is by my son’s drawing.’

‘However, seeing this photo of my son made me realize that I need to model that conduct for my team more effectively.

I now work during the school day and log off when my kids get home,’ Amin continued. ‘If I had to give any advice to other parents going through this at the moment,

I would tell them to please be upfront and honest with their employer and to rely as much as possible on their team and organization for help.

We are no longer able to rely as much on our friends, family, daycares, schools, or other local support systems as we once could.”