Ji-yoon Park Reflects on Being an Imperfect Mother, Doing Dishes in Leggings Her Son Dislikes

Broadcaster Ji-yoon Park, a former announcer, has candidly revealed the daily life of an imperfect mother. It is a routine of falling asleep exhausted after a glass of beer, doing piled-up dishes while wearing leggings that her son dislikes, yet still preparing breakfast and three tangerines. While reflecting on herself as someone who lives without giving up on the things she wants to do, she confessed, "I am far from being a perfect mother," but within that confession lie the realistic concerns of a mother handling work, housework, and childcare simultaneously.

On October 14, Ji-yoon Park posted a message on her social media (SNS) starting with the sentence, "I am far from being a perfect mother." She revealed that the previous day, after drinking 500ml of beer, she fell asleep hugging her son Ian without even drying her wet hair due to exhaustion. Rather than a grand parenting story or a well-curated daily life, she unreservedly showed an ordinary day where she breaks down from fatigue and postpones tasks she needs to do.

The mother's routine continued without a break the next morning. Although she cannot prepare breakfast every morning, Ji-yoon Park asked her son, who goes to school late only on Wednesdays, what he wanted to eat. At her son's mention of wanting to eat a proper meal after a long time, she pulled out a "cheat key"—a pack of gomtang (beef bone soup)—and put it on the stove. To prevent herself from losing the motivation to go out for exercise, she even finished the piled-up dishes while wearing the leggings her son dislikes. She also did not forget to peel three tangerines for her son, who only eats them if she peels them for him, after preparing a simple meal of rice and side dishes.

She even hurriedly smoothed out the visible wrinkles in his school uniform. Even so, Ji-yoon Park honestly confessed that she is a mother who also cannot give up the things she wants to do. After packing her sneakers and water bottle, she left the house before her son. While she may be far from the image of a mother who performs perfect meals, tidy housework, and meticulous care, her busyness showed her attempt to take care of her child within the given time while also protecting her own daily life.

The part of Ji-yoon Park's story that catches the eye is her self-evaluation and her son's gaze. She wrote, "I am a mother who, seeing the warm gaze of you understanding your mom and working hard because you see her earning money, doing what she wants, and doing housework, finds the strength once in a while to get moving." It is a confession that even amidst the self-reproach of not being perfect, the gaze of her child who understands her becomes the strength to move again. She continued by offering support to those living similar days, saying, "It's a Wednesday where you might lose strength, right? Everyone, cheer up!"

Ji-yoon Park met Choi Dong-seok as colleagues from the KBS 30 recruitment class of announcers and married in 2009, having one son and one daughter. The two faced a breakdown of their marriage in 2023. Currently, while Ji-yoon Park holds custody and parental rights, Choi Dong-seok meets the children through visitation rights. This confession from Ji-yoon Park, who has been balancing broadcasting activities and childcare even after the divorce, offers a glimpse into the concerns of a working person behind her glamorous image as a broadcaster.

Recently, she also publicly disclosed changes in her weight and health issues. On December 5 last year, Ji-yoon Park revealed her weight of 55.7kg, stating, "I praise myself for losing almost 7 or 8kg compared to July." Since then, while attempting to diet again, she lamented that weight control is difficult due to hormonal issues and the rate of weight loss is slow.

On October 4, she confessed that she has been suffering from adenomyosis and that her weight increased significantly after starting hormone treatment this spring. She stated that although she stopped the treatment, her body had already become heavy, and she felt intimidated even when attending glamorous events because of her changed appearance compared to the image she previously pursued. It seems she has been dealing with concerns about health and appearance in addition to childcare and housework.

Ji-yoon Park's self-reproach about not being a 'perfect mother' actually resonates with the image of mothers who endure each day amidst a reality that demands perfection. A daily life of heating up gomtang, peeling tangerines, and doing piled-up dishes while also taking care of her own exercise and work. Although Ji-yoon Park described herself as a lacking mother, the day she revealed contained both her meticulous heart toward her child and her effort not to lose herself.

Read the original (Korean)