My bosses and colleagues were amazing, but they couldn’t hold a candle to my cooing little being back at the ranch. Too-tight work clothes, pumping my milk in the bathroom, and the million other crazy things working mommies live through every day did not sweeten the deal.
The other day, I met a nice lady at the park and spent 10 minutes chatting with her about mothering while I pushed my toddler on the swing and held my sleeping infant and she chased the twins she was nannying. She had been a stay-at-home mom back when her three kids were little, so we did a little bit of the easy commiserating that moms often do, and talked about how much we loved being with our babies despite […]
Though staying home with my kids is something I never, ever thought I would do, my new identity is mostly, and surprisingly, a great fit for me. Mostly.
Before I had kids, I spent hours wondering how motherhood would change my sense of self. The mothering part has actually been easy on my ego (relatively speaking). I am wholly a mom. I love being a mom. I don’t care if I have “mom hair” or wear “mom jeans” or any of […]
Now that Quinn is well into toddlerhood, and the burgeoning bump of my second baby sometimes edges into my field of vision, I have both the emotional distance and the sense of urgency needed to look back critically on the newborn period. My memories are often sepia-toned, infused with the magic that tiny little being brought into our lives.
But the picture isn’t always pretty. I didn’t realize it at the time (or at least I didn’t acknowledge it to anyone, […]
My whole life, I’ve felt like I was obtaining random skills and taking up random hobbies for just my own pleasure. I am one of these ever-curious people who likes to try new things, learn new languages, make new circles of friends. I like the liberal arts approach to life, reading Gray’s Anatomy one week, a graphic novel the next, and splicing my Paul Krugman/ Malcolm Gladwell with Jane Austin fan fic.
I always thought that my lifestyle put me at […]
I am not just a control freak, I am an I-need-to -stay-alert-every-second-of-the-flight-or-else-the-plane-will-crash control freak. I am also a planner, a list-maker, an organizer and a workaholic.
Or, wait, I mean I was those things. A long time ago. Back before I became a mom. (Just 14 months ago.)
I had approached motherhood the way I had approached all other milestones: with a carefully detailed five-year-plan that I followed to a T. Hubby and I married in 2004, I got my Master’s Degree […]
I know that some of you ladies are home on maternity leave, trying to decide whether to go back to work. I thought it might be useful to you to read a little bit about why I made the decision I did. I want to emphasize, however, that this is the decision that worked best for my family and is not a judgment against choices made by anyone else!
I went back to work when Quinn was four months old and […]