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| Me with my kids one day |
From a statistical perspective, "women now make up half of all workers in the United States, with nearly 4 in 10 homes having a mom that is also a working mother." AmericanProgress.org From a practical perspective, that means that a lot of mothers have a lot on their shoulders and are questioning their performance.
Many working moms are perfectionists. Even when we fall short, we tend to believe in a perfect working mom ideal. We believe that there is a working mom out there who always has her s- -t together. We may have even seen her at meetings. She likely has perfect hair, designer clothes and shoes without scuffs in them, never fights with her husband, has perfect kids, and manages to get out of the door every day without any stress. We compare themselves to that ideal and because in our heart of hearts, we believe that it exists. And we are putting more effort into the working mom thing than we have put into anything in our lives—this includes our Girl Scout Badges, our SATs and our college careers.
I say "we", because I am in this camp too. I haven't tried harder at anything than being a working mom and that includes the Bar Exam!
Because of my work through this blog, my conversations with other working moms, and my coaching work, I know that all working moms struggle, even the seemingly perfect ones who appear to do it all effortlessly while wearing Louboutin's. However, I have also learned that not enough of us talk about it publicly. That can lead to feelings of isolation, and promote feelings of failure. For that reason, I publish a series of working mom confessions. I also like to share confessions I find from other moms. This one recently published by Today's Parent should help you have a few laughs and also help you realize that even when you think you're failing, you are truly thriving!
Let's face it, work-life balance—whether you work at home or commute to an office—is the biggest unicorn in life. We asked working moms to 'fess up: how do you make it through the week?
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