I do not have my own children that I adopted or gave birth to, but I have an amazing stepson, Ty. While my relationship with his father didn’t work out, I was lucky in that he has a great Mom (looking at you, Trish) that did the parental heavy lifting; I kinda got to do the “fun stuff” with this amazing kid (now grown ass man, but I digress), while still prioritizing my career.
Working moms have an extremely tough gig. Balancing all of the expectations at work and at home is a unique position. Most of the way work was set up was for white men in a traditional setting, with someone to take care of the home front, freeing him up to work long hours and give 100% at work.
The problem is, with a finite pie, you can’t give 100% at work, at home, to yourself, to spiritual practice, and anything else of importance to you. 100% is all there is, and yet often working moms move into a sort of “superwoman” position, trying to do it all.
My own parents divorced when I was 14 and all of a sudden, my Mom, Carole, was trying to nurture her career in education, take care of my brother and me, and have whatever personal life she could afford with her limited time. Work was not set up to support her in this and it was incredibly difficult to pursue that 70’s advertisement promising a woman could “bring home the bacon” AND get everything else done. In many ways, it was watching her struggle through these multiple roles that firmed my desire to keep things a little more simple.
We need to change the way work is set up (and how it is currently a set up), but that's a topic for another post.
On our podcast this week, Sherry and I speak to Doc Swiner, a physician, author, entrepreneur, mom and so much more. She has rejected the Superwoman Complex (and writes about it in her amazing book!) to create a more balanced life.
Listen in to hear Nicole Swiner's #perfectlyimperfect journey. Here, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
