Balancing work and family is, well, work. But it also brings many great joys. When I went back to my editing job after my first child was born, I cried on the ride to work every day for a month. I also missed my youngest son’s first piano recital because I had to be away at an industry conference—and a decade later, he still talks about it. And I confess to being so burned out on occasion that I secretly moved the clock hands ahead to make my kids’ bedtime an hour earlier.
Like any working mom, I’ve had the usual fantasies about being “just a housewife.” But I’m also not the only one to have ever spent the weekend wishing Monday would arrive a day early so I could escape the family fray. I still wouldn’t have traded my job—or my kids—for anything. Despite the constant and often chaotic balancing act, the rewards are sweet and rich. I love the life of a working mom. Here are eleven reasons why.
1. Work is easier than parenting …
For me, the constant structuring of days for three small children was like trying to nail jelly to the wall. I’m far better at meeting people and writing about them, and I thrive on the urgency of a deadline. Work not only provides an outlet for my ambition and creativity, it also presents order—and an assistant. Bliss!
2. … but being a parent makes me a better person
There’s a whole part of me I’d never have discovered if I hadn’t had children—and it’s one of the better parts. No other experience in life could have taught me that I’m capable of loving and nurturing another person to such great lengths. Without my three kids, I could have been one of those pinch-faced overachievers still in her office at 8:00 p.m. It wouldn’t have made me happy. And I wouldn’t have learned how much I actually like Chutes and Ladders.
3. I’m a good role model
I was delighted to come across a recent study showing that working moms boost their daughters’ self-confidence in their later careers. Also, my sons have learned that the effort that goes into running a family is not “women’s work.” Since they were little, the boys have cleared the table, filled and emptied the dishwasher, made beds and taken turns helping me in the kitchen. Now that my kids are in college, they’re also proud of what I do as a writer and editor—and my sons, at least, are extremely impressed to find Derek Jeter’s phone number in my Rolodex.
