At 31, I had my first daughter and a demanding but rewarding career in public relations. I loved it and I was good at it. Admittedly, once I became a mother, I ditched happy hour to head straight home with just enough time to snuggle my baby and put her to bed.
A colleague made a comment once about how our team was on “the mommy track” because we all had kids and certain accounts weren’t placed with us because of it. I was crushed. Was that really it? The end of a career I busted my ass for? I got two degrees for? Built a reputation and forged relationships with? This is as far as I go? I took it as an insult.
Now, after my fair share of life changes and with a second daughter, and ditching a long career for one I built with my own hands on my own terms…hell yeah I’m on the mommy track! And you know what? It’s fantastic!
The mommy track allows me to take my kids to school and play dates and mid-week lunches. The mommy track lets me show up to help in the classroom and chaperone field trips. The mommy track enables me to close my computer and take a nap with my baby. The mommy track is ????????where ????????it’s ???????? at.
Don’t let anyone ever make you feel like less because you’re a mother and you watch the clock until it strikes 5 so you can peace out and go home to your babies. Screw the people who give you sideways glances because you were late again after attending your kid’s school show. Your work is not your life. It’s what pays for your life so you can provide your kids with a good one. It’s important but not your everything. Your kids, your family are your everything. You embrace that mommy track and embrace it hard because you worked your ass off to get here – morning sickness, raging heartburn, swollen everything, preeclampsia, rough pregnancies, miscarriages, episiotomies, fertility issues, harrowing adoption processes, surrogacy.
Everything and anything that brought you to motherhood. All of it trumps punching that clock. Remember that ????????
