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| Working mom at work after returning from my second maternity leave |
"Being a working mom is harder than it needs to be because corporate policies and practices were not created with us in mind..." Chatón T. Turner
Successful working women keep track of important matters in the news. However, we are not one-dimensional. Some of us also want to keep up with celebrity gossip and fashion news too. Even in the era of the Internet and 24 hour news shows and E!, it can be challenging to keep up with everything.
Fortunately for you, I make it my job to keep up on articles of interest and resources to working moms and when I find notable ones, I share them with you. Below are articles discussing how certain childless women in power were insensitive, judgmental, and down right hostile to working moms before they had their own children.
There are so many things that go into succeeding as a working mom!
A lot has been written about the mommy wars. However, fewer
articles have been written about the ongoing wars between childless women and
working moms in the workplace. The truth is, until you have children it is really hard to understand the dilemmas that working moms face.
These
dilemmas are constant and challenging.
- “Do I have time to shower and wash the kid up for school? Or does one have to suffer?”
- “Can I answer my office phone that is ringing at 5:05 and make it to pick up my kid on time from day care? Or should I let it ring and risk missing my bosses call and falling out of favor?”
- “Should I fidget in purse for the duration of the meeting to stay awake and appear like I have ADHD? Or should I stop fidgeting and risk falling asleep because I have been up most of the night breastfeeding my infant who is resisting being “sleep trained”?
- I know this opportunity would be an enhancement for my resume, but am I really able to undertake one more special project?
- Can I manage to pump, eat lunch and get all of my work done today before I have to leave to pick up my kid(s)?
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| The infamous Medela pump supplies |
Judging Working Moms
Like many women, I know that I judged working moms before I became one. I used to think that motherhood could be easily managed with good planning, good breeding, and good research. Don’t get me wrong, I coach women about how to navigate the rocky waters of being a working mom. And I have managed to work and mother with great success. I can tell you that you can mother and work and do it well.
That said, working and mothering is not for the faint of heart.
Simply put, it is hard to serve two masters. While working mothers do it every
day, women who work without having children do not have a clue about what it
takes. It’s probably best that way. Knowing too much might turn them into salt…
I am not suggesting that work life is easy for childless
women. Indeed, in 2013, The Energy Project conducted a survey that
indicated that only 40% of workers believe that they are effectively able to
balance work and home life. And that study was not restricted to working moms. Work has become all consuming and managing to include anything else with ease can stress out the best of us. However, when you throw a kid into the mix, things change.
Having played both roles, I can tell you that working without children is different than working with children. For that reason, it comes at no surprise to me that there have been a slew of articles from women apologizing about how they were complete wenches to working moms before they had children. Smart women tend to believe that research will tell them everything they need to know. They judge working women with children because they believe they can do it better. However, there are certain lessons that only experience can teach...
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| Working mom and kids |
Working with children is different
Having played both roles, I can tell you that working without children is different than working with children. For that reason, it comes at no surprise to me that there have been a slew of articles from women apologizing about how they were complete wenches to working moms before they had children. Smart women tend to believe that research will tell them everything they need to know. They judge working women with children because they believe they can do it better. However, there are certain lessons that only experience can teach...
Below are a list of articles written by women who describe the
lessons that having children taught them about being a working mom.
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