Working Moms

  On one very special, expertly coordinated night each month a very important event occurs. I get to have dinner with some of my very best girlfriends. We’ve been friends for 20+ years which makes me feel old, but we still value our relationship just as we did as young girls in college. We all have children, husbands and jobs and it only takes a string of about 200 texts messages to get it planned, but we make it a priority to meet. We pick a nice restaurant, leave our kids at home and talk, laugh, vent and support each other for several hours. Our husbands have stopped asking when we will be home. These nights are one of the most...

Are you a hard-working mom? Would people describe you as a go-getter, Type A, perfectionist, or work-a-holic? Are you also the laziest person you know? Welcome! I don't know about you, but for all the energy I exert getting uniforms ready, homework completed, piano practiced, cleats tied, snacks sent to school, and toddler bathed--not to mention the work I put in during my work day--I somehow manage to be a world-class couch potato. I'm talking full lounging in my over-sized pajamas (or as I like to call them, my "house uniform"), watching some trashy TV, snacking, cruising social media, and feeling absolutely no guilt whatsoever. None. Zip. Zilch. Over the years I've managed to trick my family into believing I'm still "momming," even...

  It never fails: During the week I will go pick up lunch somewhere or get on social media and see moms with their kids, enjoying summer. I start feeling down on myself because my kids are at camp and I am stuck behind a desk. Are those kids having a better summer than mine? I work 40-50 hrs a week. Throw in gymnastics practice and renovating a house and I am one tired mama. My husband works, as well, so not much changes between winter and summer around our place. Not much in terms of lazy summer can be found in our house. Growing up my mom stayed home and our summers were spent reading, playing outside, riding bikes with neighbors...

"Mommy, I want a real baby. Emily has a real baby. I only have pretend babies." My almost four-year-old reminds me of this daily. I never intended it to be this way. My brother and I are 13 months apart. While I never thought I would have two children in just over a year, I love how close I am to my brother and expected my children to be fewer than three years apart in age. But alas, it's looking more and more probably that dear daughter will likely be in grade school before her "real baby" comes along. And my feelings about this are, in a word, complex. My girl is, and always has been, a strong-willed child. She...

Well, it’s more like 7:30-4 and not all of me looks like Dolly Parton, but I am a working mom of an infant. My second baby, Declan, is nine months old and I am still nursing him. So ladies we all know what that means: pumping at work. I previously nursed my daughter, Salem, until she was nine months, and pumped at work for seven of them after returning from an all too short maternity leave. So far, I have learned it is definitely a “do whatever works best for you” and “learn as you go” type of thing. Once I was about two weeks in, I formed a pretty good routine. Since this is my second child, you...