Working Moms

I can think of few things as scary as re-entering the workforce after having left a successful career many years ago. Over the years I have often found myself referring to my previous career in Human Resources as something I did “in the before.” My journey is likely familiar to many of you. I planned to have it all – a successful career and a family, financial freedom, and a comfortable lifestyle. And like so many others, the universe had other plans for me. Our quest for “one more” left us with three miscarriages, an ectopic pregnancy that nearly killed me, and an ungodly amount of medical bills. We’d reached a point where desperation won and we were willing to...

Motherhood is hard ...  … and while we have Google and endless advice from Aunt Karen, everyone ultimately has to figure things out on their own. The opinions of others are so accessible to the modern-day mama, that I genuinely believe our mental health suffers any time we pick up our phones throughout early motherhood.  It’s a new kind of struggle and one I’m having a difficult time navigating. I generally use my manners online, but that doesn’t mean I’m not affected when someone I respect chooses to parent differently and raves about it. It doesn’t mean I’m not affected when a stranger blatantly blasts the way I’ve chosen to go about teaching my child to sleep. It doesn’t mean I’m...

In February 2018 I just landed an amazing job, bought my own house, just turned 23, felt the most comfortable I ever had in my own skin, and recently retired from competing for Miss Louisiana. I felt like things had fallen into place until I found out I was pregnant. I was scared, but not for the typical reasons someone young and not married would be scared about having a baby. I had supportive family and friends. That was no issue. It felt like a death sentence. I was scared because of everyone telling me “just wait”. Everything I was told and read made being pregnant feel like a death sentence. I was generally advised to hurry up and get married, quit...

My son turned one at the end of August. We didn’t have the celebration we had imagined, but we did get to celebrate him and the fact that we made it through the first year. We had a small gathering, grandparents and godparents. It was lovely and exhausting.  In preparation for the party, I hung a “1st BDay” banner from our unadorned curtain rod...It’s still there. I see those gold, semi-inflated letters as a representation of all of the chores that I’ve left undone, all of the unchecked boxes on my to-do list. I also see it as the time I’ve gotten to spend with my son and on myself.  As a working mom, it is sometimes difficult to reconcile my son...

I whole-heartedly jumped in so many activities fearlessly in my childhood, teenage, and college years, even when I absolutely sucked at said activities. My mom cheered the first time I got a foul during my short basketball stint because I was actually on the court I was in the right place on the court for the first time to have a chance at even getting a foul Yet, I still proudly walked around with my status as a basketball player. I look back at my 18-year-old self and can learn a few things from her. I gave a speech called “Failure is an Option.” That girl knew that it was okay to try new things and fail. She knew failure was...