Woman who put career on hold for 13 years sends handwritten thank-you letter to Seoul mayor

"Thanks to this solid childcare support system, one woman who had put her career on hold was able to reclaim her place as a member of society."

The moment came Tuesday at the hub-type Woori Dongne Kium Center in Daebang-dong, Dongjak-gu, Seoul. Mayor Oh Se-hoon was participating in a sit-and-reach flexibility test alongside children as part of the center's "traveling children's Seoul fitness test" program when a young girl waiting her turn at the pull-up bar walked up to him. "My mom asked me to give you this," she said, handing him a handwritten letter. Oh thanked the girl and tucked the letter away. A Seoul Metropolitan Government official said Oh read the letter in the car on his way back to City Hall after the visit, and that he appeared deeply moved and could not take his eyes off it for some time.

The letter's author, a woman surnamed Jo, introduced herself as a woman in her 40s raising two children — one in sixth grade and one in second grade — who had recently returned to work. She wrote that she had spent the past 13 years raising her children, setting aside her dream of becoming a social worker, and had finally resumed that path by joining a social welfare organization as a new hire in July. Her biggest worry before starting the job, she said, had not been the work itself but finding care for her children. School-based after-care programs had no openings, and nearby Kium Centers were equally full. "At a time when returning to society after more than a decade felt more daunting than exciting, the hub-type Kium Center's temporary childcare service gave me the peace of mind to take that first step into my new workplace," she wrote. Hub-type Kium Centers provide temporary childcare for elementary school students when parents face urgent situations — such as overtime work, hospital visits or family events — and go beyond basic supervision to offer child-led cultural, arts and physical activity programs.

Jo said her eldest child, a sixth-grader, was able to have a proper lunch through the "Seoul Ai Deundeunhan Kki" meal support program before heading to hagwon, easing much of her worry as a mother. "I came to understand just how daunting school vacations can feel for a working mom who has to balance a job and childcare," she wrote. "I am grateful that I was able to get over that mountain with relative ease." The Seoul Ai Deundeunhan Kki program provides elementary school students with healthy lunches at Woori Dongne Kium Centers and similar venues during school vacations at a subsidized price of 2,000 won.

Jo also wrote that none of this had come about on its own. "I know it is all thanks to the teachers who cared for the children on the ground, the civil servants who paid close attention to policy, and the many hands that worked behind the scenes," she said. "As a mother of two, and as someone who has just stepped into the field of social welfare, I feel more deeply than ever how precious that dedication is." She closed by expressing hope that the same warm support would reach more parents in situations like hers, and offered her sincere gratitude.

The "traveling children's Seoul fitness test" runs in conjunction with the city's "Seoul Ai Deundeunhan Kki" school-vacation meal project. The program measures children's strength, muscular endurance, flexibility, balance and agility through five events — grip strength, a seated forward bend, a pull-up bar hang, a balance board exercise and a standing long jump — and provides exercise counseling based on the results. Seoul has been running the children's fitness test at seven Woori Dongne Kium Centers since late July. The session Oh attended Tuesday at the Dongjak No. 2 hub-type Woori Dongne Kium Center was the second to be held, following an earlier session in Nowon.