My favorite personal story about life as a working mom is a story passed on to me from my then four-year-old Jack’s preschool teacher.
Jack was enrolled in a ‘nature preschool’ after being not-so-politely asked to leave a more traditional preschool setting because he was “too disruptive” and not a good “first time listener”. That school’s principal (a woman!) suggested that maybe some of his poor behavior was due my frequent work trips…so much for women supporting women!
That little mishap led us to a wonderful nature school - it was a huge breath of fresh air, literally and figuratively. There were no walls to this classroom; just sticks to play imaginary games with, leaves to turn into art work and endless trees to climb. Needless to say, Jack thrived at this school and never was he (or I) called into the principal’s office again.
One day at nature preschool, Jack’s teacher overheard him and another little girl playing house under a big tree. The little girl told Jack that she would be the mommy and he would be the daddy. Jack did not like this plan and said he wanted to be the mommy. After a bit of discussion among the two four-year-olds, Jack came up with a solution: “How about you be the mommy who stays home and I will be the mommy who goes to work.”
To this day, it’s one of my proudest working mom moments!
There have been many times in my working mom life where I have wondered if my desire to maintain my career is at the expense of my children’s well-being. Questions like: ‘should I find a job where I don’t travel as much?’ or ‘should i find a job where my hours are predictable and consistent?’ tend to float in and out of my mind. There’s no right answer to any of these questions and no one way to parent your kids and as Jack reminded me while playing house under a tree: there can be more than one type of mommy...some mommy’s stay home and other mommy’s go to work. Both choices are good.
Mission accomplished.
