working moms

This article first appeared on Fairygodboss and has been republished with permission.

After 17 years as a working mom, I see my biggest job as bringing up my two sons and making them responsible, ethical adults who contribute to the future of the world.

On a day-to-day basis, though, this mostly involves cooking for them, driving them around, cleaning up after them and always remembering how much I love them. I’m fortunate to have a great partner in crime in my husband, and he helps create an environment of gender neutrality at home; daddy cooking doesn’t signify a “special occasion,” for instance. Add to this an employer that empowers you, as well as management that values your contributions, and what you have is a team of indispensable allies for working moms like me who want to keep their sanity.

My cyberstalker is my mother — but it wasn’t always this way.

“You need to come home right now,” I sobbed into the phone, no doubt sending a jolt of panic into my poor husband while he sat at his desk in his air-conditioned office with the free coffee and free access to adult conversation.

Children of working moms have a lot to be grateful for.

The concept of second-shift motherhood is not a new idea, and unfortunately is not changing as rapidly as it should.

It’s safe to assume most work-at-home moms (WAHMs) had different plans when first they embarked upon career-hood. My plans involved working twelve-hour shifts in DC as a devoted political staffer.