Married At First Sight’s Melissa Rawson has shared a very relatable post about motherhood and childcare guilt.
Melissa, 31, shared a throwback video of herself crying in her car after dropping her sons, Levi and Tate, three, at daycare in Melbourne.
The mum-of-two found love with husband Bryce Ruthven on season eight of the reality show.
‘We are on our third day of childcare orientation. I don’t know who it’s harder on, Levi, or myself,’ Melissa began in the immensely vulnerable video, which she recorded in 2023.
In the video’s caption, Melissa explained that she recorded the video before the family moved to the Gold Coast.
Filmed in her car outside of the daycare centre, Melissa didn’t hide her tears as she explained how guilty she felt leaving her son in order to return to work.
‘Levi just isn’t taking to it,’ she said through tears. ‘I know he will eventually, but I don’t often feel like a s****y mum.
‘I know I’m doing my best and I know this is the best thing for him, and I have to go back to work.’
Married At First Sight’s Melissa Rawson has shared a very relatable post about motherhood and childcare guilt
The self-described mummy blogger has maintained a strong following years after her 2020 appearance on MAFS, because of her candid revelations about parenting and unfiltered confessionals.
However, some of her posts have been criticised by online trolls, who are not fans of the down-to-earth approach she takes to posting.
‘I have to go back to work full time,’ Melissa sobbed. ‘It’s just so because heartbreaking because he’s just screaming.’
She explained how her heart broke upon hearing her son calling out for her repeatedly.
‘I just left Levi again and he’s screaming for me. Mum, mum, mum. I don’t know what to do.’
The Gold Coast mum said that she filmed the video of herself breaking down after dropping her twin boys at daycare in 2023, but is experiencing the same emotions after relocating the family from Melbourne
Melissa said she was embarrassed to have fallen apart in front of other parents and the staff at the childcare centre.
‘Of course I’m the one that breaks down in childcare in front of all the educators,’ she lamented. ‘When does it get easier?’
With her hands covering her eyes, the ex-MAFS bride sobbed openly.
‘Now living on the Gold Coast, the twins started at a new childcare centre this week,’ Melissa wrote.
‘Today is their second day. And I feel the same way right now as I did last year. Except now that the twins are older, they’re more self-aware that I’m gone and don’t know when or even if mummy is coming back.’
The season eight bride, 35, shares her two-year-old boys with her husband Bryce Ruthven, who she met on the Channel Nine dating experiment
‘In saying that, I’m lucky to be able to have all of this in the first place’.
Followers were quick to share words of support and explain how normal it is to have ‘mum guilt.’
Read More
Married At First Sight couple Melissa Rawson and Bryce Ruthven celebrate milestone anniversary
‘My biggest advice as a mum is that the handover needs to be quick. The longer you stay to placate the child the worse it is for both of you,’ one mother wrote.
Others encouraged Melissa to trial having her husband Bryce do drop-offs, to build relationships with the care givers, and assured her that things would get better in time.
‘The fact that you feel this way tells me you aren’t a s****y mum,’ one follower wrote. ‘Childcare is so hard at first but ultimately the kids end up loving seeing their friends and having fun at day care.’
The season eight bride, 35, shares her two-year-old boys with her husband Bryce Ruthven, who she met on the Channel Nine dating experiment.
Bryce and Melissa’s relationship was easily the most controversial during the explosive eighth season of MAFS and Bryce was arguable one of the most controversial grooms.
He was infamously branded as ‘toxic’ after he told his Melissa that she wasn’t his ‘type’ on the show and copped huge backlash from fans at the time.
In February last year, Melissa and Bryce legally exchanged vows at a beachside wedding in Sorrento, Victoria.