Hellobee

I preface this post by saying that I think being a stay-at-home mom is truly one of the most challenging (but perhaps also rewarding) jobs out there. But being a working mom has its challenges, as well. On Sunday night, as I was on my way to the train station heading to a work conference for the week, I thought about how the preceding hour reflected those working mom moments that have become a normal part of life. Here are a few mostly humorous, real-life moments of this working mom.

I love these two little guys, but I also love work.

– Before leaving for a week-long work trip, I simultaneously prepped and cooked three different dinners. I wrote down the full list of meals (and extra “emergency” meals) available for Mr. Dolphin and the kids, then posted the list to the fridge. I will often package up the kids’ lunches for the next three or four days so they are easy for Mr. Dolphin to grab.

– I regularly leave work early to try to get home and cook dinner and spend time with the kids before their early bedtime. I then do more work after we put them down for the night. Although I know I am so lucky to have the flexibility to do this, it still means that I often start working as early as 7:30 a.m. and don’t close my laptop until after 9:00 p.m.

– I use all of my sick time for doctors’ appointments and taking care of the kids when they’re sick, not for my own personal illnesses. Thank goodness my current job provides an incredible amount of sick time per year.

– When I do stay home to take care of the kids who are either sick or have a day off from daycare, I try to bribe/distract them with a movie while I take conference calls. Then I feel guilty for putting them in front of a screen as a babysitter.

– I have been on more than one conference call where I take myself off speakerphone at the exact moment that one of the kids decides to yell, “Mama!!!!!!” Similarly, when I saw the BBC kid-interrupted interview video, I thought, “Thank goodness I wasn’t being interviewed by a TV station when Lion bust in on my last video conference.”

– When I get to work, I alternate between feeling relieved to be doing something I love/interacting with adults/having a break from the kids to worrying about how the kids are doing/feeling guilty that I’m not participating in certain daycare events/feeling frustrated by the high cost of daycare/wishing I had more time with the kids.

– I found maternity leave to be much more difficult than actually returning to work. For me, with Lion, going back to work was a relief. While I missed the little guy, I was excited to be back to work and away from a colicky baby. With Panda, I dearly missed the newborn snuggles and wished I had a longer maternity leave, but at the same time, I knew he was in good hands at the daycare and I loved being able to focus on my work. I found that maternity leave was lonely in many ways and I was constantly worried about what I was missing at work (so much so that with my second, I worked significantly during my leave due to the timing of various events).

– When I travel for work, I miss the kids like crazy, but am also really grateful for the opportunity to have a full night’s sleep (even if I don’t take full advantage of it).

– When I know I won’t be home for bedtime and I’m not able to FaceTime, I record a video of myself telling a story (a nightly ritual with the kids’ as the main characters) so the kids can watch it while brushing their teeth.

– On more than one occasion, I’ve opened my bag at a meeting to look for a pen only to pull out a wooden train, an acorn, a crayon or other item that my kids have slipped into my bag over the weekend.

– I will slip my hand into my coat pocket looking for my business card and come out with cheerios I picked off the floor after the kids dropped their snack cup in church.

– When I need a pick-me-up when I’m working, I’ll pull out my phone and look at the adorable pictures or watch the cute videos of the little ones.