Melissa Rawson of Married At First Sight shared a very relatable post about motherhood and childcare guilt.
Melissa, 31, shared a throwback video of herself crying in her car after dropping off her sons, Levi and Tate, three, at daycare in Melbourne.
The mother 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 is harder for, Levi, or myself,” Melissa began in the immensely vulnerable video, which she recorded in 2023.
In the video’s caption, Melissa explained that she shot the video before the family moved to the Gold Coast.
Filmed in her car outside the daycare center, Melissa didn’t hide her tears as she explained how guilty she felt about leaving her son to go back to work.
“Levi just doesn’t feel like it,” she said through tears. ‘I know he will eventually, but I don’t often feel like a mother.
“I know I’m doing my best and I know this is what’s best for him, and I have to get back to work.”
Melissa Rawson of Married At First Sight shared a very relatable post about motherhood and childcare guilt
The self-proclaimed mummy blogger has maintained a strong following years after her 2020 appearance on MAFS, for her candid parenting revelations and unfiltered confessionals.
However, some of her posts have been criticized 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 just is because it’s heartbreaking because he’s just screaming.”
She explained how her heart broke when she heard her son calling for her repeatedly.
‘I just left Levi again and he’s screaming for me. Mom, mom, mom. I don’t know what to do.’
The Gold Coast mother said she filmed the video of her breaking down after dropping her twin boys off at daycare in 2023, but is experiencing the same emotions after moving the family from Melbourne.
Melissa said she felt ashamed because she had fallen apart in front of other parents and childcare center staff.
“Of course I’m the one breaking down in daycare in front of all the teachers,” she complained. “When will it get easier?”
With her hands over her eyes, the ex-MAFS bride sobbed openly.
“The twins now live on the Gold Coast and started at a new children’s center this week,” Melissa wrote.
‘Today is their second day. And I have the same feeling now as last year. It’s just that now that the twins are older, they’re more aware that I’m gone and they don’t know when or even if Mommy will come back.”
The season eight bride, 35, shares her two-year-old boys with husband Bryce Ruthven, who she met on Channel Nine’s dating experiment
“When I say that, I’m lucky to be able to have all this at all.”
Followers were quick to share their messages of support and explain how normal it is to have “mom guilt.”
‘My biggest piece of advice as a mother is that the transfer has to happen quickly. The longer you stay to soothe the child, the worse it is for both of you,” one mother wrote.
Others encouraged Melissa to try to get her husband Bryce to do the drop-offs, to build relationships with the health care providers, and assured her that things would get better in time.
“The fact that you feel this way tells me you’re not that kind of mom,” one follower wrote. “Childcare is so hard at first, but in the end the kids enjoy seeing their friends and having fun in daycare.”
The season eight bride, 35, shares her two-year-old boys with her husband Bryce Ruthven, who she met on Channel Nine’s dating experiment.
Bryce and Melissa’s relationship was by far the most controversial during the explosive eighth season of MAFS, and Bryce was perhaps one of the most controversial grooms.
He was infamously branded ‘toxic’ after telling his Melissa she wasn’t his ‘type’ on the show and receiving a huge backlash from fans at the time.
In February last year, Melissa and Bryce legally exchanged vows at a beach wedding in Sorrento, Victoria.