16/05/2026
As we mark Mental Health Awareness Month, it is important to remember that some of the heaviest emotional burdens are carried quietly. In homes, schools, hospitals, and especially childcare centers, there are people who spend their days caring for others while rarely being asked how they themselves are coping.
Care work often begins long before the sun rises. Taking the case of a chidcare center, a caregiver wakes up early to prepare her own children, travel to work, and open a childcare centre before the first parent arrives. By morning, the space is already full of movement and emotion. One child is crying. Other refuses to eat. A toddler needs comforting. A parent quietly shares worries about problems at home before rushing off to work.
She listens. She comforts. She cleans. She teaches. She carries not only the needs of children, but also the emotional weight of the families around her. And most days, there is little time to pause and breathe. By evening, the exhaustion is deeper than physical tiredness. It is the kind that comes from constantly giving emotionally while receiving very little support in return.
Yet this reality is rarely part of conversations about mental health.
Childcare work is often viewed as “natural” work for women, something people assume comes easily. But caregiving is emotional labor. It requires patience, empathy, resilience, and constant emotional presence. Over time, the stress accumulates quietly. Many caregivers normalize fatigue, emotional strain, and burnout because they feel they simply have to continue.
This Mental Health Awareness Month, perhaps it is time we also ask:
Who is taking care of them?
Mastercard Foundation
