Three American mothers, on the brink. Eleven months, multiple breakdowns, one harrowing realization: They’ve got to get back up and do it all again tomorrow.

There has long been a refrain among working women in America that to get ahead, the “mom” part of their lives needed to be hidden from view — lest they be viewed as “uncommitted” to the work or somehow less fit for the job. For hourly wage workers — and many of those now tasked with doing the essential work to keep our country running — that burden has often been even more pronounced.

But there is no hiding anymore. The struggles of working parents — and moms, in particular — have never been more in our faces.

Some have hoped this could be a galvanizing moment for mothers. A point of common rage. The moment when it became clear, once and for all, that “our system and our politicians have completely abandoned working parents,” said Jessica Lee, a senior attorney at the Center for WorkLife Law at the University of California Hastings College of Law.

But who really has the energy to be angry — or even to advocate for change — when they’re just trying to get through the day?

This is a story of three mothers, trying to stay afloat.