I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been back at work since the end of Feb., but I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t shared too many of my thoughts about life as a mom with multiple jobs. (I hate the term \u00e2\u20ac\u0153working mom” – because *every* mom is a working one!) Here are a few observations:<\/p>\n
-You know that saying that youth is wasted on the young? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m often reminded of that when I think about maternity leave and how it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wasted on the baby\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first few months of life. In the beginning, babies do little but sleep, eat and cry \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and it isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t until three or four months that they develop real personalities and become so much more of a joy to be around. How cruel that this development coincides with most moms’ return to the office!! A co-worker and I once commented that there should be daycare for teeny-weeny babies \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and moms should get to take time off to spend with their happy, adorable three- to six-month olds. We were only half-kidding! <\/p>\n
-The *thought* of being away from Zoe for several days each week was a lot worse than actually being away from her. This isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t to say that I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t missed her like crazy (see below); it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just that it wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t as heartbreaking as I thought it would be. Maternity leave was such a strong bonding experience that I once reached the point where I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even THINK about going back to work and leaving Zoe without bursting into tears. (And this from a woman who really likes her job!) Once I left her a few times and started getting into the groove with things, though, I realized it was going to be okay \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and I actually *felt* okay. (It helped, of course, that Zoe seems so happy with Elena \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and that Elena seems to really care about her.)<\/p>\n
-Although it might sound surprising, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t necessarily feel *guilty* about leaving Zoe during the day. I love my job and career, I feel like what I do is important, and I believe that Zoe is happy and safe even when we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re apart. In addition, I think it will be good for an older Zoe to see first-hand that women can play many different roles (both inside and outside of the home). With that said, I do sometimes feel sad for *me*. This is very selfish, I know – but spending time with Zoe is a great treat, and I often feel bad to be missing so many fun, gratifying moments with her. <\/p>\n
-Since I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been back at work, I feel like I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m constantly moving at 100 mph. It seems like there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s always something to do (e.g. write a press release for work, do a load of Zoe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dirty clothes at home) or to remember (e.g. bring milk, blanket, bib, etc. etc. to Zoe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s daycare). I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m fairly good with organization and time management, which helps keep me sane, but a little breather from time to time might be nice. (Then again, maybe I won’t get one of those for another 18 years or so!)<\/p>\n
-Due to what I just wrote above, I often wish I could be two people (“work Michelle” and “home Michelle”) or have twice as much time in the day to do everything I want\/need to to do. I know this isn’t a unique thought, though – what parent wouldn’t want more time to spend with their kids?<\/p>\n
-My biggest struggle with being back at the office is keeping work-life and home-life separate. If I have a busy day or a looming deadline, I often bring my work home with me (if only in my head). Especially now that Zoe has an early bedtime and we only have a few hours together some of the evenings, I want to be better at leaving work at work \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and just enjoying *being* with Zoe. This is something many people struggle with \u00e2\u20ac\u201c whether they have a kid or not \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and I find it one of the most challenging things to combat.<\/p>\n
-This is probably a given, but now that Zoe is around, I always have something to look forward to in the evenings. Nothing makes me happier than reaching Holloway St. around 5:30 each night\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 Once I make that right turn, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m only a few blocks away from a smiley, wiggly baby \u00e2\u20ac\u201c who often greets me with a sloppy, open-mouth kiss!<\/p>\n
-M<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been back at work since the end of Feb., but I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t shared too many of my thoughts about life as a mom with multiple jobs. (I hate the term \u00e2\u20ac\u0153working mom” – because *every* mom is a working one!) Here are a few observations: -You know that saying that youth is wasted on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-8-five-to-six-months"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}